mumam 



BEST METHODS 
OF TEACHING IN 
COUNTRY SCHOOLS 




G. DALLAS LIND 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Cliap Copyright No.. 

Slielf„_iLr^-_. 



UNHTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Psycbology a$ an na in Ceacbina 

f^V ^^V f^V 

That scientific teaching is impossible without a 
knowledge of Psychology is no longer a debated 
question. But there is an important question in this 
connection which has not yet been answered : WHAT 
BOOK shall the hundreds of thousands of earnest 
teachers study W'ho have not had the advantages of a 
college training? 

1. Do they need a book which they can understand — 
a book whose apt illustrations bring abstract truths 
within the range of universal comprehension ? 

2. Do they need a book which makes it clear that 
there are questions which it does not attempt to 
answer, questions that no elementary text-book can 
hope to answer, and which will thus stimulate them to 
further study and further investigation ? 

3. Do they need a book which is constantly raising 
questions about their minds and the minds of their 
pupils — a book which will make them students of their 
own minds and the minds of their pupils in spite of 
themselves? 

4. Do they need a book which is itself from beginning 
to end a perfect sample of the inductive method of 
teaching, beginning with the simple and the known 
and going to the complex and unknown ? 

5 Do they need a book which thousands of teachers 
have declared was the first to interest them in the 
study of mind? 

If so> there is one book that will fully satisfy their 
needs. That book is Gordy's New Psychology. 

If you wish to see for yourself whether it possesses 
all of these characteristics send for a copy. It will cost 
you nothing if you do not like it. If you wish to keep 
it the price is $1.25. 

HINDS & NOBLE 

4^J3-J4 Cooper Institute - - New York OtY 



, mistakes m Ceachiitd 

How to correct them. No book has ever 
been published containing more helpful sug- 
gestions to teachers than the "Preston 
Papers'* by Miss Preston's assistant. Our 
price to teachers is 80 cents ( regular price 
$1.00). No money need be sent until you 
have received the book and approved of it. 
Among the topics discussed are : 






How to Preserve Order in the School-Room. 

How to Secure and Retain Attention. 

How to Manage Unruly Pupils. 

Should a Pupil Ever Be Punished? 

Is Prize Giving a Good Plan? 

How to Prevent Whispering. 

How to Teach Manners. 

A Cure for Laziness and Selfishness. 

How to Conduct a Recitation. 

How to Teach Geography and History. 

How to Teach Arithmetic and English Grammar. 

How to Teach Penmanship and Physiology. 

How to Teach Spelling and Reading. 

How toConduct Examinations and Review Work. 

Nature Work and Manual Training. 




We want to place a copy in the hands of 
every one who is engaged in teaching or 
is intending to teach, particularly Normal 
Students. We desire to introduce it into 
every Teachers' Reading Circle. After read- 
ing the book, you will want to help us. May 
we send you a sam ple copy on approval ? 

HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers, 
4.5.13. 14 Cooper Institute New York City; 



m 



BEST 

Methods of Teaching 



IN 



COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



BY 



/ 



G. DALLAS LIND 



REVISED AND ENLARGED 



THE AUTHOR OF PRESTON PAPERS 



COPYRIGHT, 1S79, BY J. E. SHERRILL 
COPYRIGHT, 1S99, BY HINDS & NOBLE 



HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 
4-5-6-1 2-13-1 4 Cooper Institute, New York City 

School Books of All Ptiblishers at One Store 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, ••- 7 

Library of Congre«% 
Office f the 

JAN 25 1900 

Reglsttr of Copyrlg!it«, 

51575 

Of Interest To You 

We have a more thoroughly per- 
fected system and better facilities for 
furnishing promptly books of all pub- 
lishers than any other house in the 
country. 

Our business is divided into de- 
partments, each under a superintend- 
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looked after. 

We deal only in School and College 
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duced prices any schoolbook published. 
We issue a complete catalogue of 
these books, with a classified index. 
Send for one. 

HINDS & NOBLE 
4.-5-13-14 Cooper Institute, New York City 

StCJNU COPY, 






PREFACE 

• This book was written for country teachers, by a 
country teacher, and though doubtless possessing im- 
perfections, the author hopes that by a careful perusal 
of its contents the reader may learn many things which 
he has learned in the school of experience, that dearest 
of teachers. 

Captious critics may find much to worry over, but 
the writer can assure them that they will not find any- 
thing which he has not worried over before them. 

A strictly logical arrangement of the subject has not 
been attempted. It was thought that a familiar con- 
versational style was better adapted to the purpose in 
hand. 

It will be observed that frequent references are 
made from one part of the book to another. This was 
done to avoid repetition, and it is hoped the reader will 
follow them out. G. Dallas Lind. 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION 

The book has been thoroughly revised by the author 
of ''Mistakes in Teaching (Preston Papers)." New 
chapters on the best methods of teaching Literature, 
Penmanship and Manual Work have been added. 

The publishers feel confident that the new edition, 
printed from brand new electrotype plates, will be of 
inestimable value to the ambitious country school 
teacher who is earnestly striving to raise the standard 
of her school. 

New Yurk, January i, 1900. 



For Teachers and Siudents 



Ce$$on$ Outlined 

U. S. History^ Geography^ English Grammar 
Physiology and Arith??ietic 

By G. Dallas Lind 

Author of " Best Methods of Teaching in Countrv 
Schools " 

Cloih, 224 pages. 200 Lessojis. Regular prlCL\ $i.2j 
( To Teachers, $1.00) 



A Specimen Outline Lesson in U. S. History 

Outline Lesson LVII 
McKinlev's Administration 

'"'' The peace we have ivon ?s not a selfish trure 0/ arvis^ 
but one whose conditions p7-esage gojci to hiiuta nity.'^ 

Explosion of the " Maine " 

Spanish- Ajuerican War : — 

Dewey at Manila 

Sampson Bombards San Juan 

Sinking of the " Merrimac " 

Schley Destroys Cervera's Fleet 

Stamp Tax 

Battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill 

Ponce Surrenders to General Miles 

Manila Captured 

Annexation of Hawaii 

Treaty of Peace Signed at Paris 

Peace Conference at the Hague 

War with the Philippine Insurgents 

See Montgomery's, McMaster''s, Lee's or any other recent 
History 0/ the United States. 

) Have your pupils write a brief account of the 
Spanish-American War. 



HINDS & NOBLE, ^ ^ S New York City 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 



The Teacher 

I. Moral Qualifications 

II. Mental Qualifications 

III. Physical Qualifications . 

IV. Scientific and Literary Qualifications 
V. The Spirit of the Teacher 

VI. Personal Habits 

Vll. In Relation to Patrons . 

VIII. In Relation to Society . 

IX. In Relation to the Profession . 

The School 

I. Preliminary Work . 

II. Organizing .... 

III. Conducting Recitations . 
IV. Government .... 

The School House 

I. School Architecture 
II. Apparatus .... 
III. Ventilation . . . • 



I 

3 

7 

ID 

i6 
i8 
20 
24 

25 

27 

31 

33 
38 

49 

56 
58 



METHODS OF TEACHING 



Reading . 
Literature 



62 
85 



VI 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Spelling and Defining 

Penmanship 

Arithmetic 

English Grammar 

History . 

Geography 

Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene 

Algebra and the Higher Mathematics 

The Natural Sciences . . o . 

Manual, or Constructive Work . 

Morals and Manners .... 

Model Recitations .... 

Miscellaneous ..... 

Hints and Helps for the Teacher 



PAGE 
90 

lOI 

no 
127 

142 

148 

162 

168 
171 

180 
182 

196 

212 

227 



' BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 
IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
THE TEACHER 

L MORAL QUALIFICATIONS 

All men, even the most vicious, will admit that he 
who is immoral should not be placed in the position of 
teacher of ycuth. Popular opinion says that teachers 
should have a good moral character, and all certificates 
require it; but how often, alas, is there a failure in 
carrying out this provision in practice! A man may 
be a very immoral man and yet find no trouble in 
getting some one or more persons to certify to his 
moral character. The law can not reach this matter, 
except in cases of outbreaking immorality. It rests, 
then, with the teacher himself and with his conscience. 
Ask yourself, young man, if you are a fit person to 
enter that sacred temple. Pause and purify yourself 
on the threshold. Remember, that you carry about 
you a moral or an immoral atmosphere, according to the 
condition of the soul within; and that the innocent 
youth must imbibe that atmosphere, be it healthful or 

I 



2 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

poisonous. It is impossible for anyone to be a' success- 
ful hypocrite. He may be morally rotten at heart, and 
attempt to make an outward show of morality, for the 
purpose of obtaining and holding his position as 
teacher; but youth is not so easily deceived, and 
moral instruction will have but little weight coming 
from such a man. The inward character of a man will 
crop out, in spite of himself. In his teaching, in his 
government, in his conversation, in the family, or on 
the play ground, the character of the teacher will 
exhibit itself, perhaps unconsciously to him but plainly 
to others. Says Dr. Holland: ''The mind that has 
become a treasure house of truth and beauty speaks a 
world into existence, with every utterance. * * -^ 
We give what we have received — that which is in us 
will out of us. Expression is the necessity of 
possession." If the teacher's heart is a "treasure 
house of truth and beauty" it will overflow, exerting 
an ennobling influence on all who may come near it. 
On the other hand, if it is a whited sepulcher, "filled 
with dead men's bones and all uncleanness," it will 
pollute all who have to deal with it. 

The teacher must be not only a moral but a religious 
man, not of that kind which loves to "display to con- 
gregations wide, devotions, every grace except the 
heart," but one who loves God and his fellow man, and 
obeys the golden rule, not from policy but as the deep 
seated conviction of his soul. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 3 

II. MENTAL QUALIFICATIONS 

The teacher may be a truly moral and rehgious man 
and yet be entirely incompetent. He must have 
certain mental qualifications. I will simply hint at a 
few things by which the teacher may measure himself: 

1. He should have a cheerful and hopeful disposition. 
The school-room is no place tor a gloomy, sour, 
despondent nature. Children and youth are naturally 
buoyant and hopeful ; but their impressible natures may 
be easily warped by constant contact with a morose 

disposition. 

2. He should he kind and benevolent No human 
heart is proof against the power ot kindness. Even 
brute nature may be greatly impressed by it. 

3. He should be open, frank and unsuspicious . 
These are noble quahties, but I would not be mis- 
understood here. I do not mean that a teacher should 
be so unsuspicious that he will consider all children as 
born angels, who can do no harm. Children sometimes 
need watching; but the teacher who acts as a detective 
or spy, and who constantly exhibits their disposition, 
should' have no place in the school-room. He should 
also remember that there is a spark of honor m every 
breast; and that that sentiment should be appealed to 
and trusted in, if he would attain control over vicious 
dispositions. He should always be ready to confess 
himself in the wrong, when he sees that he has made a 

Tni stalce 

4. He should have a love of the work. This implies 



4 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

a love for children. He who has not the faculty of 
philoprogenitiveness well developed should not choose 
the profession of teacher. He must have a love for the 
profession or he can not take a deep interest in it. He 
can have little control of children unless he can 
sympathize with them ; and he can not sympathize with 
them unless he loves them. He should have this love 
sufficiently strong to be able to encourage their efforts 
and to bear with their shortcomings, to feel for their 
sorrows, to lift up the despondent, to bring out the 
timid, to hold in check the bold, to conquer the 
obstinate, and in general to throw his whole soul into 
the work of improving their physical, mental and moral 
condition. 

5. He should be cojiscieniiotis. This faculty leads a 
man to do right because it is right; to shun the wrong 
because it is wrong. He must feel that it is his duty 
to teach well, and to feel conscience-smitten if he leaves 
undone what he might have done for the benefit of 
those under his care. Without this feeling no one can 
become a good teacher. All men have this faculty in 
some degree; but those in whom it is feebly developed 
are the rogues, scoundrels and hypocrites of society. 
A lack of this feeling has filled our jails and peniten- 
tiaries and furnished subjects for the gallows. This 
faculty should be cultivated in children and youth, and 
the teacher who has it largely developed himself is best 
calculated to teach it. 

6. He should be a lover of order. Order and 
system are nowhere needed more than in the school- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 5 

room. If the teacher is not naturally systematic, he 
should use his utmost endeavors to improve himself in 
this respect. Let him make order and system a study. 
Let him practice them everywhere, even to the minor 
details of daily duties. He should practice keeping 
the articles in his room in order, the books on the 
shelves, etc., until it becomes a kind of second nature 
to him. 

7. He sJiotild be firfu and self-reliant. This quality 
may easily be carried to extremes. Many men have 
the faculty of firmness. so well developed that it be- 
comes mere obstinacy and mulishness; or, they are so 
impressed with the importance of being sole master of 
whatever is in their charge, that they become tyrants 
and despots. The true teacher must avoid either ex- 
treme. If he is kind and conscientious and loves 
children, he can be firm without being despotic, self- 
reliant without being bigoted, and can govern with 
justice and equity. 

8. He sJionld have a social and agreeable nature . 
A teacher should have none of the disposition of a 
hermit. He may succeed in some other occupations 
and not be of a social nature ; but in this he can not. 
The teacher's business is to improve society, and there- 
fore he must make himself one of the mass. He must 
have a kind word for everyone, must have the power of 
adapting himself to different classes of people and 
making his company agreeable to them ; but at the same 
time he will maintain his self-respect and moral dignity. 
(See pp. 22 and 24.) 



6 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

9. To be a good teacher a ina7i should have a good 
brain, all the nieiital faculties well developed. A man 
may be able to make a good wagon wheel or pair of 
boots and be greatly lacking in many of the mental 
faculties. He may be a good penman, musician, or 
artist, and lack conscientiousness and benevolence. But 
a man who is greatly lacking can not teach well. The 
teacher in our public schools is required to teach some- 
thing of almost everything, either directly or indirectly. 
Such, also, is the intimate inter-relation of the branches 
of knowledge, that to be proficient in any one branch a 
man must have some acquaintance with many other 
branches. A man can not teach that which he does not 
know. A teacher can not have too much knowledge. 
He can not have a knowledge of a branch unless he has 
a good development of the mental faculty which it is 
necessary to have, in order to acquire that branch. 
(See p. 10.) 

Do not think, teacher, that it is absolutely necessary 
to be born with a full development of these mental 
qualifications. Almost any person of ordinary mental 
caliber can acquire these qualifications by persistent 
study and practice. If, then, you are lacking in some 
of these mental faculties necessary to make a good 
teacher, let it be your constant study to improve your- 
self. Let the motto, **know thyself," be ever present 
before your mind ; and apply your energies to the im- 
provement of those parts which need care. You may 
be lacking in one faculty and yet be able to make up 
for it in part by a full delopment of some other one; 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 7 

but nothing is of greater advantage than a brain well 
balanced. If you are greatly lacking in any of these 
parts, you would better seek some other employment, 
as the experience necessary to improve you will be at 
the expense of your pupils and patrons and a constant 
source of vexation to yourself. If every teacher would 
look in upon himself, and when he finds that he is not 
fitted for the place he occupies, would step down and 
out and enter some other profession or adopt some other 
employment, the condition of our schools would soon 
improve rapidly. 

III. PHYSICAL QUALIFICATIONS 

The teacher must have good health. The school- 
room is not a proper place for an invalid. It is often 
the case that persons who are, from some physical defect, 
unfitted for occupations requiring manual labor enter 
the teaching profession, hoping thus to make a living. 
Again, many enter the profession with good constitu- 
tions, to retire from it in a few years with impaired 
health and seek some other occupation from which they 
hope to regain their lost vitality. The former should 
not and the latter need not be the case. No man who, 
from physical reasons, is unable to work should make 
this an excuse for teaching school. If he has the 
proper mental qualifications and good health, though he 
may lack a limb or the use of one, yet he is capable of 
teaching school. If the teacher understands and prac- 
tices the laws of health, he may live as long and enjoy 



8 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

as good health as in any other occupation. There is 
not space in a treatise of this kind for a full discussion 
of the question of hygiene. A few suggestions, how- 
ever, will not be out of place: 

A man may follow some out-of-door occupation, being 
possessed of a robust constitution, and live and enjoy 
excellent health for years, and never take a thought 
about the matter. Exercise of the body, pure air and 
sunshine will go far towards making up for the excesses 
in eating and drinking, or for want of sleep. But a 
teacher is for a great part of the time deprived of the op- 
portunity for bodily exercise, often of pure air and sun- 
shine. He should, then, whenever opportunity pre- 
sents, take daily exercise in the open air and sunshine. 
Most country teachers board or live at some distance 
from the school-house; and the necessary walk to and 
from school affords an opportunity to enjoy these three 
essentials of health. Some persons need more exercise 
than others. Those of a rough and sturdy build need 
bodily exercise more than those of more delicate frame. 
Persons with delicate frames often overdo this matter of 
exercise; and the very thing which, if properly con- 
ducted, should be of great benefit, becomes an injury to 
them. Exercise, to be beneficial, should not stop short 
of moderate fatigue. It hurts no one to get moderately 
tired. 

The teacher should not be above manual labor. An 
hour each day spent in chopping or sawing wood would, 
in many cases, be of great benefit to the teacher's 
health, and need not detract from his popularity. He 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 9 

should take his place on the play ground and exercise 
with the pupils m their games. The study of some 
branch of natural science, as botany, zoology, or geology, 
will necessarily lead him to take walks in pursuit of 
knowledge. Such rambles among rocks and trees will 
be food for both body and mind. Riding on horseback, 
rowing, skating, driving, working in the garden, or at the 
various occupations on the farm, are all to be highly 
recommended as beneficial to the teacher's health if not 
indulged in to excess. 

What must I say about diet.? Books have been 
written on the subject; and yet men may follow their 
instructions to the letter, and come out dyspeptics in a 
few years. But I will say: be temperate. It is not so 
much what you eat as it is how you eat it. Regular 
meals when the occupation is regular, and moderate in 
quantity, eaten slowly, with cheerful company, not too 
great a variety at one meal to tempt the appetite, but a 
variety from day to day, not very much animal food, an 
avoidance of pastry, plenty of ripe fruits and vegetables, 
food coarse rather than fine — these requirements will 
keep one in health, so far as diet is concerned. 

Another essential to perfect health is cleanliness. 
Frequent bathing of the whole body in warm or tepid 
water, with free use of soap and frequent change of 
underclothing, will go far towards maintaining health. 
Bathing may be carried to excess. The skin may be 
excited unduly, causing extreme sensitiveness to changes 
of temperature. Once a week in winter, and two or 
three times a week in summer is often enough for most 



lO BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

teachers. A daily bath in cold water, however, is 
greatly enjoyed by some — and when not found hurtful 
is a good tonic. The same clothing that is worn in the 
daytime should not be worn at night. The clothes worn 
next the skin in the daytime should be removed, and 
allowed to air at night. They may be put on again in 
the morning, and those worn at night allowed to air. 

Tobacco, tea, coffee and spirituous liquors, are not 
necessary for anyone; and though not all of them are 
always injurious, the teacher will do well to let them 
severely alone. (See p. i8.) 

If the teacher is not already informed in the matter of 
hygiene, I hope he will study it, and apply his knowl- 
edge to the care of his physical organization. 

Said John Locke, nearly two hundred years ago: "A 
sound mind in a sound body is a short but full descrip- 
tion of a happy state in this world." A man can not 
have a perfectly sound mind without a sound body; 
and certainly, though one may enjoy existence without 
a sound mind, he is not capable of filling the position of 
teacher. 

IV. SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS 

It is generally supposed that to teach a primary 
school, or such a school as is generally found in country 
districts, requires but slight culture and scholarship. 
While it is true that a man may be a good and successful 
teacher of the common branches, and know nothing 
whatever of Latin or Greek, or of the higher mathe- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I I 

matics, or of the natural sciences, it is also true that 
had he knowledge of these higher branches, he would be 
a better teacher of the others. To say nothing of the 
culture and enlargement of the mind, by the study of 
science and languages, the mere knowledge obtained 
is of great value, even to the teacher of the most pri- 
mary class. 

Under the present state of society, we can not expect 
all teachers to be great scholars. They may commence 
teaching with no more education than that to be obtained 
in common country schools; but they should not remain 
content with that. While they teach they should study, 
not only how best to teach, but to improve their minds 
in higher branches of knowledge. (See page 6.) 

The teacher should always be a learner; and if he is 
a true teacher, he will learn more than his pupils. He 
will learn not only more of the branches he is teaching, 
but he will also make rapid progress in the higher 
branches of knowledge. His first endeavor should be 
to attain ordinary proficiency in the branches that he is 
required to teach. This he should have before attempt- 
ing to manage a school. Then, while teaching, he 
should study the lessons ahead of his classes, that he 
may come before them prepared to demonstrate any 
point which may come up. At the same time that he is 
keeping ahead of his classes in the common branches, 
he should pursue some one of the higher branches. He 
should not, however, undertake too many studies at once. 
Let him take one extra study at a time, and when he has 
attained considerable proficiency, take up another. 



12 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Many a young man has acquired a knowledge of the 
higher branches by study of books without a teacher, 
and many young men can yet do so; but in these days 
of cheap schools, no young man who expects to become 
a teacher should fail to spend at least one term in some 
normal school or other institution where he may obtain 
a knowledge of literature and science. He may, if he 
has a good common school education, teach a term or 
two in the country and then spend his earnings in taking 
a course of study in some wide-awake institution. The 
young man may do as I have known others to do: bor- 
row money to take a course at school, and then go home 
and teach, and earn the money to pay it back. If such 
a course can be pursued, the young man can well afford 
to pay a good interest on the money. 

He can acquire the fundamental principles of the 
sciences under a competent mstructor, and in contact 
with others who are enthusiastically pursuing the same 
study, much more rapidly than by his own unaided 
study. Having thus had a start, he can pursue these 
branches at his leisure, during odd moments, while 
earning some money, improving himself in the com- 
mon branches, in the art of teaching school, and gain- 
ing experience of great value. 

Much may be learned by improving the odd moments. 
It is said that Dickens never wrote more than two hours 
a day, and we wonder at the immense amount of literary 
work he accomplished. But a short time each day will 
accomplish wonders. It is not the protracted efforts 
once in a month or so that count, but it is the little every 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 3 

day. The teacher should let no day pass in which he 
does not do some studying, be it ever so little. He has 
ample time, if he improves it properly, to mform himself. 
He has mornings and evenings and Saturdays to study. 
He can also use a portion of his noons and recesses in 
looking over his lessons for the day. 

It is best to have some regular program for study 
and recreation. For example: let him devote half an 
hour each morning and evening to the study of some 
science, not allowing any ordinary circumstance to de- 
tract from this half hour twice each day. Let him de- 
vote an hour each Saturday to the study of history, 
another hour to reading works on teaching or education, 
and half an hour each morning and evening to the prep- 
aration of his daily recitations, and the remainder of his 
leisure time to general reading, recreation and exercise. 
The time usually spent in loafing at the village store, or 
in idle conversation, would be better consumed in gen- 
eral reading, such as newspapers, magazines, or even 
fiction. 

I would advise the teacher to be careful what ficti- 
tious works he reads. The standard authors, as Dickens, 
Scott, Mrs. Stowe, may be dipped into lightly; but 
too much time spent even in reading the best and 
purest works of fiction is wrongly used. The teacher 
should remember that he has a life-time in which to 
read these works, and not be in a hurry to finish them. 
He should use them as a means of mental relaxation, 
but not be carried away by them. If he finds that they 
are absorbing too much of his attention, he must stop and 



14 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

lay them aside. It is better even never to read fiction 
at all, if he finds that he can not control his appetite for 
it. He is driving a fast team, and needs to keep a tight 
rein. There is plenty of interesting general reading 
with which to occupy leisure, besides fiction : Works 
of travel, biographies, historical works, and miscellan- 
eous sketches; and he will find himself better informed, 
and at the same time rested from more active labors. If 
he can take up a work of fiction, and read a few min- 
utes, and then lay it down without an effort, he is per- 
fectly safe; but if it absorbs so much of his mind, and 
excites his imagination so much that he will sit up half 
a night to finish a novel, he would better never look in- 
side of one. 

I was once a whole year reading one of Dickens' 
novels; and I am positive that it did me more good than 
if I had read it in two days or two weeks. I have done 
a great deal of light reading while walking to and from 
school; but as this is hard on the eyes, I would not 
recommend it. Perhaps if not more than five or ten 
minutes at a time is spent in this way, no harm can 
result to the eyes. It is a good plan for one to carry a 
book with him, and read a page or two, and then, with 
eyes off the book, resting them, think over what has 
been read. Let us consider for a moment what may be 
accomplished in this way : He may read a page in a mm- 
ute; and ten pages each day will amount to a large 
book at the end of the year. If he is enthusiastic, he 
will always carry a book or magazine with him, and read 
while waiting for his meals, for the train, anywhere and 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 5 

everywhere that opportunity presents to occupy a few 
moments in this way. This may sound triflmg, but re- 
member that "Trifles Hght as air make up the sum of 
human things," and "Little drops of water, httle grains 
of sand, malve the mighty ocean, and the beauteous 
land." 

The teacher needs a general knowledge not only to 
enable him to teach well, but to enable him to fill a high 
place in society. But almost every man has some 
special talent in some direction, a special love and talent 
for some science or art, and this he should cultivate. 
Does he take more interest m geology than in any other 
science.'' Then he should commence a collection of 
specimens and use every opportunity to inform himself 
in this specialty. If it is botany, he may make a her- 
barium. If chemistry, he may get a few chemicals and 
apparatus and go to experimenting. If he has a talent 
for music or painting, he should cultivate it. 

In general, let the teacher make ample preparation 
for his work ; and though he does not follow it for a life- 
time, the culture he receives will be of inestimable 
value in whatever profession or walk of life he may choose, 
or be driven to accept. He must not think that be- 
cause he is only a country teacher he needs no special 
training, or that he will never amount to anything in the 
world. Some of the greatest statesmen and scientists, 
poets and authors in this country, began their careers as 
teachers of country schools. 



lO BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



V. THE SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER 

Every person who enters the school-room for the pur- 
pose of assuming control of the young minds which 
daily assemble for instruction, should make a careful 
self-examination and inquire what are his motives and 
what the spirit which prompts him to such a step. Is 
it for money alone? Is it for popularity? Is it because 
he is unfitted for any other occupation? Is it because 
he loves to display his knowledge? If he has no higher 
motives than these, he would better, for the sake of 
those who are to be under his care and for his own 
sake, enlist in the army, go to the poor-house, or run off 
to sea. 

I can not better express what I wish my readers to 
know than in the language of an old and prominent 
educator whose Theory and Practice of Teaching was 
of great value to me in my first years of teaching. 
I refer to David P. Page, who says: ^'But the trne spirit 
of the teacher — a spirit that seeks not alone pecuniary 
emolument, but desires to be in the highest degree use- 
ful to those who are taught; a spirit that elevates above 
everything else the nature and capabilities of the human 
soul, and that trembles under the responsibility of at- 
tempting to be its educator; a spirit that looks upon 
gold as the contemptible dross of the earth, when 
compared with that imperishable gem which is to be 
polished and brought out into heaven's light to shine 
forever; a spirit that scorns all the rewards of earth 
and seeks that highest of all rewards, an approving 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 7 

conscience and an approving God ; a spirit that earnestly 
inquires what is right, and that dreads to do what is 
wrong; a spirit that can recognize and reverence the 
handiwork of God in every child, and that burns with 
the desire to be instrumental in training it to the 
highest attainment of which it is capable — s7icJi a 
spirit is the first thing to be sought by the teacher; 
and without it the highest talent can not make him 
truly excellent in his profession." 

If the teacher will cultivate such a spirit, with a good 
moral character, with good mental and physical endow- 
ments, he will be in the highest degree successful. 
There are many who make teaching the stepping-stone 
to some more lucrative employment or profession. I 
can not say that this is altogether wrong. While it is 
true that experience makes good teachers, and men who 
have been a lifetime trying to improve themselves in 
the art of teaching are generally the best teachers, yet 
experience is not really necessary to make a good 
teacher. If a young man throws his whole soul into the 
work and has the proper qualifications, he may teach as 
well the first school he undertakes as he would after 
forty years' experience. He may profit by the ex- 
perience and mistakes of others. The trouble is not so 
much that men make teaching a stepping-stone to some- 
thing else, as it lies in the fact that men do not learn to 
do with their might what they find to do. A young 
man may be preparing for the law, medicine or the 
ministry, and at the same time be wholly and heartily 
enlisted in the work of teaching. If we consider the 



l8 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

matter aright a man should be a teacher in any profes- 
sion ; and he who does his best while teaching will be 
v^ery apt to do his best in whatever other profession he 
may afterwards choose. In other words, if he has the 
true spirit of the teacher, he will have the true spirit of 
the lawyer, physician or minister. 

VI. PERSONAL HABITS 

If men were perfectly well balanced morally, men- 
tally and physically, perhaps they would have no bad 
habits. The power of habit is great ; but there are few 
men who have habits which they can not break, and 
every man can cultivate good habits. Does a man use 
tobacco.'' He must break it off when he enters the 
profession of teacher. He can do it. All that he has 
to do is to quit. If he has not the moral stamina to say 
to himself: ''I will not be ruled by habit," he is not 
fit for a teacher. Of course, no one who pretends in 
this day to teach, uses ardent spirits; at least they are 
so few that I need not say anything about it here. 

Neatness of person and dress. The teacher should 
dress well, not necessarily in costly garments, but neatly, 
plainly, and according to his circumstances. A thread- 
bare coat may be made to look well with a clean, well- 
laundered shirt and collar, a neat neck-tie and clean, 
polished boots or shoes. All flashy, foppish costume is 
out of place upon the teacher. The morning ablution 
of face and hands, neck and ears, and attention to the 
finger nails and teeth, are of importance to neatness of 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I 9 

appearance. Cutting and cleaning the finger nails and 
picking the teeth are improper in company. A fre- 
quent use of a clothes brush to remove dust and spots 
of grease, and of a hair brush to remove dandruff, is 
necessary. No person can be clean and nse tobacco. 

He who is neat of person and dress will generally try 
to keep the school-room neat and clean. 

System and regularity. Let everything that the 
teacher does be done in a regular and systematic 
manner. This habit once fixed is of incalculable im- 
portance. Nearly all men who have made a name and 
fortune in business will tell you that they owed much of 
their success to the habit of doing everything according 
to system. (See p. 4.) 

Politeness. This is one of the necessary habits of 
the teacher. The true teacher is ever the true gentle- 
man. He will be polite and courteous in manner and in 
language. True politeness has its origin in love. He 
who loves his fellow man as the Savior commanded will 
be polite. It is the spontaneous overflow of a generous 
and noble spirit. The teacher who possesses this quality 
will exercise politeness to all with whom he comes in 
contact. He will have a word for everybody, and a 
kind look and engaging manner towards children. His 
conversation will not be polluted with .slang, nor 
poisoned with profanity. 

Pinictnality. This habit should be studiously cul- 
tivated. If the teacher is not prompt and punctual he 
can not expect his pupils to be. He should carry this 
habit into everything he undertakes. Be punctual to 



20 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

all engagements, whether to meet a friend, to attend 
church, to business matters, to school duties, or in what- 
ever you may have to do with your fellow man. 

Studiotisness. Study must be made a habit. Teachers 
should assign certain stated times for study, and con- 
scientiously devote the required time to it. They must 
study every day, if it is only a little. 

VII. IN RELATION TO PATRONS 

The highest duty of man is to please God ; next, to 
please his fellow man ; and lastly, to please himself. The 
majority of men, perhaps, reverse this order in practice. 
But if a man does right he will please God, all good men 
and himself. A great responsibility rests upon the 
teacher. He is placed in charge of a number of human 
beings, young, inexperienced, of impressible and elastic 
nature, capable of being molded, bended, at the will of 
the operator. He holds these beings in trust, and is 
responsible for their well-being and advancement while 
under his care. It is true a teacher has a hard task, 
and too much is often expected of him. When child- 
ren are without moral or mental training at home, and 
inherit passions and appetites from vicious parents, it is 
not to be supposed that the teacher, during the com- 
paratively short time they are under his care, should 
reform and change their nature. But much can be 
done towards this result ; and the most earnest and 
judicious worker will accomplish the most. 

The teacher should endeavor to please his patrons. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 2 1 

In order to do this his patrons should be acquainted 
with his plans and modes of work. Every parent in 
the district should be visited at least once during the 
term of school; and if possible every parent should be 
induced to visit the school. The teacher should antici- 
pate any trouble which may arise between him and the 
parents, visit them and talk the matter over, and if pos- 
sible, nip the trouble in the bud. If a child brings any 
orders or instructions to the teacher from the parent, 
the teacher should at once visit that parent and talk the 
matter over and come to a fair understanding. In nine 
cases out of ten, the parent will yield to the teacher's 
plans and approve of them, where it would be otherwise 
if the teacher had gone on and done as he thought best 
without consulting the parent. He might have made an 
enemy of the parent, much to his subsequent regret. 
There should be a perfect understanding between 
teacher and patron, and perfect cooperation in the plans 
of teacher and school board. 

The country teacher will find all kinds of men to deal 
with. He will find mercenary, close-fisted school direct- 
ors, who will grudge him his wages, and will not listen to 
any demands for expenditures in regard to the school 
or school-house. He will find directors who are care- 
less and indifferent to the matter, who will not express 
an opinion in regard to his plans, but tell him to go 
ahead and do as he thinks best ; and if any trouble 
arises, in which their children are concerned, they will 
be the first to make complaint and spread evil reports 
about the teacher. He will find men who are continually 



2 2 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

meddling and causing trouble in the school. He will 
find families who, having feuds among themselves, will 
carry them into the school-room, and the teacher will be 
put to his wit's end to manage matters. He will find 
the north end of the district arrayed against the south 
end, a village part against the country part of a district, 
political troubles, differences among rich and poor, all of 
which will affect the welfare of his school. The teacher, 
then, needs to be a tactician of high order. He should 
be ever on the watch-tower to foresee these difficulties 
and devise some means to meet them. 

The teacher should make himself familiar with his 
patrons, and take an interest in their business, not in a 
meddling manner, but that he may converse with them 
on topics with which they are familiar. Let him talk to 
the farmer about his crops, to the stock raiser or dealer 
about his cattle and hogs, to the mechanic about his 
work, etc. Let him not be too ready to communicate 
knowledge, but rather be a good listener, and by a few 
judicious questions lead them to do the greater part of 
the talking. In this way he will make himself agree- 
able to his patrons, and they cannot have reason to 
think he feels above them. Poor people and many 
country people are very sensitive on this point, and are 
often ready to think a man feels himself above them 
when no such thing is true. In many localities there is 
nothing that people so much detest as what they style a 
'* big-feeling " person or a ''big-head." A teacher in 
the country must have a good deal of the *'do-as-the- 
Romans-do" feeling, in order to succeed. St. Paul 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 2^ 

said : I was all things to all men, that I might win 
some. So it must be with the teacher to a certain ex- 
tent. (See p. 5.) 

A few words should be said in this connection about 
making application for a school. The teacher has here 
an opportunity to try his tact. I do not mean that he 
should try his skill in driving a sharp bargain, although 
it is sometimes necessary, for some school boards will 
hire a teacher as they would buy a pair of shoes; but I 
mean that he should so adapt himself to circumstances 
that he may make the most favorable impression upon 
the men with whom he is dealing. Let me illustrate by 
relatin^-^ a bit of my own experience in this line: I had 
just been attending a normal school in the vicinity, and 
the school boards in that section had been imposed upon 
in a number of instances by young men who, attendmg 
this school and having run short of funds, attempted to 
raise money by seeking employment in the neighbor- 
hood as teachers. Of course I was asked immediately 
if I had been a student of said school, and on answering 
in the affirmative was met with the rebuff that I was 
not wanted. Before coming to the next man I deter- 
mined to change my tactics. It was harvest time and I 
found the men busy in the field. I climbed over the 
fence and began binding wheat until I came up to the 
men. Having found the director, I kept on at work 
while talking to him. He never thought of inquiring 
whether I was from that school; but I was told after- 
wards that I had created a favorable imipression because 
I seemed not to be afraid of work. I contracted for 



24 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

that school at my own figures. I do not give this as a 
model way of applying for a school, but to illustrate the 
power of tact. Remember that tact outweighs talent 
very often. Show that you mean business and do not 
display any disposition to yield to the desire for a cheap 
teacher. Teachers themselves are very often to blame 
for their low wages. If they would use a little of the 
shrewdness used by the farmer in selling a horse, the 
standard of wages would increase. A poor teacher is 
like poor butter, dear at any price. In the first place 
he should qualify himself to teach, and then rate his 
services sufficiently high. 

Always make a written contract. In some places it 
is required by boards of education; in others, merely a 
verbal contract is all that is asked. 



VIII. IN RELATION TO SOCIETY 

The teacher should be a model man in the community 
in which he moves. If he has all the requirements of a 
true teacher, he will be a model man, so far as human- 
ity can claim perfection. He should be eminently of a 
social disposition, and mingle much with society. It is 
proper to see the teacher take a part in social parties, in 
the Sunday School, in church, in all meetings and organ- 
izations which are for the public good. He should not, 
however, show a partisan or sectarian spirit; nor, on the 
other hand, must he try to please all by carrying water 
on both shoulders. But let him be straightforward, 
candid, and honest, in his views and utterances. He 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 25 

may have his political creed and religious creed; but it 
is not well to make too much of a display of either. Let 
him show the teacher in all that he does, teaching both 
by example and precept, not intruding his services, but 
ready and willing at all times to respond to the public 
desire. He should be above those little envies and 
jealousies which abound in some communities. He 
should have none of that disposition which finds utter- 
ance in the expression: **If I can not have the best 
place I do not want any." He should have none of the 
**rule or ruin" policy. 

IX. IN RELATION TO THE PROFESSION 

''Iron sharpeneth iron." The teacher should come 
frequently in contact with others of his class. He can 
learn something from every teacher. Let him visit 
other schools and observe the work of other teachers. 
He will not fail to find something to model after or see 
something to avoid. His own faults may be repeated 
by some one else; and by seeing them in others he is 
more apt to see that they are faults. He may learn 
much by conversing with other teachers, especially with 
those who have had more experience; and he should 
seek opportunity to converse with such teachers. 

He should attend and take part in teachers' institutes 
and associations. The country teachers are too apt to 
stand back; and the city teachers, who generally con- 
duct such institutes, willingly permit them to do so. 
We hear the frequent complaint that institutes are of 



26 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

little benefit to country teachers. It is only too true. 
The plans and methods there discussed and presented 
by prominent educators are rarely applicable to the 
country school. Many of the institute lecturers are 
men who never taught in a country school; or if they 
did, it was many years before, and the ideas they have 
are such as they have acquired by reading or theorizing 
in their study-rooms. These men will take a class of 
young men and women and proceed to instruct them as 
though they were small children, expecting to exhibit 
in this way their modes of instructing children. Did it 
never occur to any of them or their hearers that if a 
class of real children were before them, matters might 
not proceed so smoothly.? Some of these prominent 
institute instructors, I fear, would not make a success of 
a school in a back-woods district. 

A good plan for country teachers would be to organ- 
ize township institutes and instruct each other. Let 
them be something of the nature of a medical society, 
consisting of free interchange of thought and opinion in 
the form of essays, orations, debates, etc. If all the 
teachers of a township can not be brought together, let 
any half dozen or more teachers organize a society and 
meet once or twice a month on Saturdays at convenient 
places. Much good might be done in this way. I 
appeal now to the reader of this book to work up some- 
thing of this kind in your neighborhood. You can do it 
and you ought to do it. Large sums are annually ex- 
pended in almost every county for prominent instructors 
at teachers' institutes. Does the outlay pay.? It un- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 27 

doubtedly pays the instructors; but I fear that the 
country teacher is paying a big price to hear a ''big 
gun" which does but little more than make a noise, 
after all. These local or township societies will cost 
but very little, and will be of undoubted value to the 
teachers. 

THE SCHOOL 

I. PRELIMINARY WORK 

The teacher's work begins the moment he has con- 
tracted for the school. He should endeavor first to 
learn something of the nature of the school he is about 
to undertake. This knowledge he may obtain from the 
parents, from the former teachers, and possibly from the 
children themselves. He should spend a week or more 
in getting acquainted with the parents and pupils. 
He need not always use formality, but may drop into 
the homes and chat informally. He will learn all sorts 
of things about the school in an indirect manner and 
without asking many questions. Patrons will be ready 
to tell all about the school as conducted the previous 
term, and about the bad pupils and what parents are 
meddlesome; and the new teacher will hear all sorts of 
opinions about the former one. He can then make up 
some opinion from this evidence, conflicting though it 
may be. He should visit the school-house and find out 
what repairs or apparatus may be needed and kindly 
ask the directors to have things in order before school 
commences. He should unfold his plans to them and, 



28 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

if possible, obtain their promise of cooperation; and he 
might also see or correspond with the previous teacher 
and learn his plans and get such knowledge of the 
school as may be helpful. 

There is nothing like making a good beginning. 
Having found out what kind of a school he is likely to 
have and what branches will be studied, he should have 
a program made out before entering the school. Of 
course it may be necessary to make changes in this one, 
but it is best to have one made out in general form be- 
fore the first day of school. 

A program will vary according to the number and 
character of the branches taught, and somewhat ac- 
cording to the number of pupils in the school. The 
teacher is required by law to teach so many hours. I 
would advise a teacher to be prompt and punctual to 
time, not teaching much more nor any less than the re- 
quired time. Schools in the country usually begin at 
9 o'clock and close at 4, with one hour for noon and two 
recesses of fifteen minutes each. I have a program here 
which provides, within the time allotted, space for all 
the branches usually taught in the country school. It is 
planned for both recitation and study; and for conven- 
ience I have divided the school into three grades on the 
subject of reading. The a grade consists of the first 
three readers; the b grade of the next two readers, and 
the c grade of the sixth reader. The words in bold faced 
type denote recitations; in common type, studies. It is 
supposed that part of the advanced lessons will be pre- 
pared outside of school hours. It will be objected. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 29 

perhaps, by some, that the time allotted to recitations is 
too short. I have frequently been obliged to teach all of 
the above branches within the allotted time, and of 
course had to do the best I could. If there are not so 
many studies, then more time can be allowed to the 
others. I have provided for the extreme cases. It 
will be observed that there is no time for a primary 
grammar class. The reader is referred to the chapter 
on grammar for an explanation. I have grouped all be- 
ginners in reading as the primer class. During the 
winter months in some schools there will be no one to 
represent this class, no one who can not read in the 
First Reader. The program is so arranged that the very 
small pupils may be dismissed half an hour earlier than 
the others; also, that they can be allowed to go out and 
play, in fine weather, after they have recited. It will 
be seen that the time to study a lesson is provided, so 
far as possible, immediately after the recitation. This 
should be insisted on from the beginning. 

The grades A, b and c are only here given for con- 
venience in arranging the program. They are not abso- 
lute divisions of the school. As a general rule those 
placed in the b grade will study primary geography, 
arithmetic to about as far as fractions and be in the pri- 
mary spelling class; but some who are in this grade 
may study grammar, advanced geography, history or 
physiology, and some who are in the c grade may 
be in a primary geography class or primary spelling 
class. These grades are, therefore, only arbitrary 
divisions, necessary to form a program both of study 



30 



BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



and recitation, 
the grades. 



Many pupils may belong to two of 



PROGRAM OF RECITATION AND STUDY 



TIME 


A GRADE 


B GRADE 




W 
ft) 

5' 




a> ? 

CO 


C GRADE 


9 


9:5 


5 


GENERAL EXERCISES 


9:5 
9:15 
9:25 
9:35 


9:15 
9:25 
9:35 
9:45 


10 
10 

10 
10 


Primer Class 

First Reader 

Second Reader 

Third Reader 


Spelling 


Spelling 

History 


9:45 


9:50 


5 


Rest 


9:50 
10:5 


10:5 
10:20 


15 
15 


Slates & Blocks 
Reading 


Fourth Reader 
Prim. Geog. 


Advanced 
Geography 


10:20 


10:35 


15 


Recess 


10:35 
10:45 
II 


10:45 

II 

11:15 


10 

15 
15 


Primer Class 
Slates & Blocks 


Primary Geog. 


Grammar 
Algebra 


11:15 


11:20 


5 


Rest 


11:20 
11:35 


11:35 
12 


15 

25 


Reading 


Fifth Reader 
Arithmetic 


Grammar 


12 1 I 


60 1 NOON 


I 

i:io 
1:20 
1:30 
1:40 


1:10 
1:20 
1:30 
1:40 

1:55 


10 
10 
10 
10 

15 


Primer Class 

First Reader 

Second Reader 

Third Reader 

Slates & Blocks 


Reading 


Arithmetic 
Sixth Reader 


1:55 


2 


5 


Rest 


2 
2:15 


2:15 
2:30 


15 
15 


Blackboard 
Reading 


Arithmetic 


Adv. Geog. 
Physiology 


2:30 


2:45 


15 


Recess 


2:45 

3 

3:15 

3:30 

3:45 


3 
3:15 

3:30 
3:45 
4 


15 
15 
15 
15 
15 


Slates & Blocks 
Dismissed 


Prim. Spelling 

Arithmetic 

Writing 

Reading 


Adv. Spell'g 

U. S. History 

Writing 

Arithmetic 



* Some teachers prefer to modify this plan, by putting the mathe- 
matics for the very first recitations, with other difficult lessons to 



IN COUNTRY .SCHOOLS 3 1 



II. ORGANIZING 

If the preliminary work detailed in the previous sec- 
tion is attended to, the work of organizing will be mater- 
ially lessened. Little time should be given to organiz- 
ing and getting ready for active work. The teacher 
should commence at once with an explanation of the 
program. That all may have something to do, he 
should assign a lesson for each class, something not very 
difficult but which will occupy their attention for a 
short time at least. The time allotted for general ex- 
ercises will be sufficient for an explanation of the pro- 
gram and assigning lessons; and then he is ready to 
begin the recitations. A little book is convenient in 
which to enroll the names of the pupils of each class 
when they have taken their places at the recitation 
seats. By enrolling their names in this way, by 
classes, teachers will the sooner become acquainted 
with the individual pupils ; and it is not so embarrass- 
ing as taking a general enrollment of the whole school 
at once. They must follow the program, seldom vary- 
ing a minute. They should do this the first day and 
continue it until the last. Not very much in the way 
of study need be expected at first; and consequently 

follow — leaving the lighter work for the last part of the day, when 
the more recreative studies ^re more acceptable to the tired brains 
than any can be which require concentrated thought. 

Others have found it best to put writing into the last half hour of 
the forenoon, before the attention has become too greatly taxed or 
the muscles too weary for good work. 



32 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

the recitation time can be taken for preliminary drills 
on the next lesson, for enrolling names and for familiar 
talk about the studies. The time on the program de- 
noted ''Rest" can be taken the first day for general 
remarks on the plan of government, the necessity of 
system and order in the school, etc. 

Every pupil should have a slate and pencil. If all 
have not, the teacher should ask them if they will not 
try and get them as soon as possible; he should attend, 
also, to the matter of getting books. 

If he commences in this way, as though he meant 
business and thoroughly understood his business, he 
will create a good impression among his pupils the first 
day; and this is a point of great value. As it becomes 
necessary, he may make slight changes in the pro- 
gram ; but frequent changes should be avoided and 
they may be, if he has studied the matter well before- 
hand. I have often heard teachers remark that they 
always dreaded the first and last days of school. In re- 
gard to the first day, if they would prepare themselves 
as above suggested, before coming to the school-house, 
and then commence actual business at once, the first 
day need not be a source of dread. 

Any lengthy speeches or remarks about the former 
school, or boasting of what is expected to be accom- 
plished, are out of place not only the first day, but every 
other day, of the school. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 33 

III. CONDUCTING RECITATIONS 

As much will be said on this subject in connection 
with the methods of teaching the various branches, a 
few general observations will be all that are necessary 
here : 

The success of a teacher depends in the largest 
measure upon the manner in which he conducts a reci- 
tation. Remember that it is one thing to hear a class 
recite and another to conduct a recitation properly. 
Under the ancient regime we heard of a master who 
kept school and heard \\\^ scholars recite. Now it is, or 
should be, a teacher who teaches his pupils. 

The objects of a recitation may be grouped under 
four heads as follows: 

1 . Examination. 

2. Instruction. 

3. Cultivation. 

4. Excitation. 

I. It is to be supposed the pupil has studied his les- 
son, and the first object is to find out what he knows 
about it. This information is necessary for several rea- 
sons: The teacher must know what the pupil has 
learned, in order to assign further lessons and give addi- 
tional instruction. The pupil, by rehearsing what he 
has learned, fixes it in his memory, cultivates the power 
of expression, and receives instruction from his fellow 
pupils. The first thing is the examination of the 
written work previously prepared by the pupils. This 
may be accompanied with instruction, encouragement, 



34 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

criticism or censure. Next, the teacher should test the 
knowledge of the pupils, by calling for reports on 
topics, by questions judiciously put, by written work on 
blackboard or slates, by reviews, drills, etc. Questions 
are advantageously used, but 'are also abused, by 
teachers. As a general thing leading questions, or such 
as suggest the answer, should be avoided. If used, 
they should be only for young pupils, or for reviews, or 
as an occasional concert drill. Questions should be so 
put as to lead the pupil to think and to answer them in 
his own language. Pupils should not be called upon in 
rotation, but promiscuously. This secures better atten- 
tion, and bars the possibility of special preparation for 
special parts of the lesson to the neglect of other parts. 
When called upon to report on a topic, it is generally 
best that a pupil rise to his feet, especially if the class 

is large. 

The importance of constant reviewing can not be 

overestimated. A summary of the lesson of the pre- 
vious day should be had each day. This need not 
occupy much time, as only the leading points of the 
lesson should be reviewed. Not only should each 
lesson be so treated, but not less than once a week 
there should be a general review of all passed over 
since the last one; and once a month or so there should 
be a general summarizing of the whole subject from the 
beginning. Review lessons may be given occasionally, 
requiring written answers to questions placed on the 
black-board by the teacher. 

2. It is the office of the teacher to impart additional 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 35 

information. Much of this may be done in preUminary 
drills. The teacher should be a treasure house of 
information on each branch he teaches. He can be 
this by constant study of the lessons previous to the 
recitations, and by being a general reader and making 
notes of what he reads. Every teacher should have a 
blank book in which to note anything and everything 
which may have a possible bearing on the branches he 
expects to teach. There are many points of interest 
which may be learned from newspapers, magazines and 
journals, cyclopedias, works of biography, history and 
travel, and in larger treatises on the same subjects as 
the class books, which should be noted under the proper 
heads convenient for reference. Among these points 
are such as follow : 

In arithmetic, there are always short methods of 
solving examples, curious properties of numbers, history 
and origin of figures, test examples. In geography, 
there are popular names of states, cities and countries, 
origin and meaning of names, historical incidents con- 
nected with places or countries, remarkable natural 
curiosities, manners and customs of the people, recent 
political changes, and much other matter not found in 
the text books. In grammar, disposition of difificult 
constructions, outlines, remarks on the history and 
origin of language, etc. may be found. In history, 
incidents will turn up that are not found in text books, 
popular names and appellations of men, biographical 
sketches, points in the philosophy of history, recent 
events, etc. In natural science, any easy experiment. 



36 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

or remarkable or interesting fact may be noted. In 
general, the teacher should note any thought which 
may come to him at odd times, or any observation 
dropped from the lips of others on the methods of 
teaching, governing, or managing a school, or any 
information obtained from lectures, political speeches or 
sermons which would have a bearing on his school 
work. In a few years such a book will prove a mine 
of gold to any teacher. Also, he may make a scrap- 
book, and from every newspaper or magazine cull 
fragments of value, and paste them in it. It is 
remarkable what may be done in a few years in this 
way. I have a scrap-book which no money would buy, 
and it has not cost me one cent of money outlay. 
I have fragments which I have been gathering for ten 
years, and now it is a volume of history, biography, 
poetry, literature, science and art. It is my plan to 
cut out of every paper which I can get hold of, whether 
it is one I subscribe for, or a stray copy that is given to 
me, or one which has been wrapped around goods, or 
one picked up in the street. I cut out everything 
useful or interesting, then sort the collection over and 
put in the scrap-book those articles of most value, clas- 
sifying them under the proper heads. 

But the teacher must not be a lecturer. He may 
talk too much. It is not the amount of information 
given, but the amount retained, which counts. Give a 
little at each recitation, and let no recitation pass with- 
out that little; but avoid prolixity. 

He should be ready in the use of familiar illustra- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 37 

tions and should cultivate the power of explanation. 
To do this he must study his lesson before coming to 
the class. Prof. Alfred Holbrook used to say that there 
were three grades of teaching power : the lowest was the 
power to make the brightest pupils understand ; second 
was the power to make the majority of the class under- 
stand ; and last, the highest power was to make the 
dullest pupil in the class understand. Teachers should 
study to attain to this highest grade of teaching power. 

The teacher will also instruct pupils how to study a 
lesson and carefully direct their studies. This should 
be done at the close of a recitation as a preliminary drill 
for the next lesson. 

3. The teacher should seek by the recitation to cul- 
tivate accurate and fluent expression in writing and 
speaking. The pupils have prepared written work at 
their seats. By careful examination and just criticism 
the teacher can aid the pupil to cultivate his power of 
expressing himself in writing. Spelling, capitals, punc- 
tuation, syntax, arrangement, method, neatness, etc., 
should be carefully noted. In speaking, also, the pupil 
should be trained in throwing off embarrassment, and in 
the use of good language. 

Teachers should seek to cultivate habits of attention 
in pupils. Much may be done in this respect by 
mutual criticisms. Care should be taken, however, that 
it is not overdone. Ill feeling is sometimes the result 
of pupils criticising each other; and among small pupils 
much confusion in the class results, unless it is carefully 
controlled by the ^teacher. A good plan in some schools 



2,S BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

is to call frequently for a report or repetition of some 
explanation or information given by the teacher or any 
of the pupils. For example, the teacher to-day imparts 
some information not given in the text book, and to- 
morrow calls for a repetition of it from the class. This 
is an excellent exercise. 

4. Under the head of Excitation, or Inspiration, I 
wish to speak of the teacher's duty to arouse an in- 
terest in study, to excite a love for study, and to lead 
the pupil into channels of independent thought and 
investigation. 

He must do all this judiciously and by a careful at- 
tention to the previous points in this section. In ad- 
dition, the teacher should be full of enthusiasm. The 
pupils will get this feeling in a measure from the 
teacher. They will not be likely to be enthusiastic in 
their work unless the teacher is in his. This holy en- 
thusiasm is one of the main points, distinguishing a true 
and good teacher from a dull, lifeless, and inferior one. 

The teacher should lead his pupils into new pastures 
of independent thought and original investigation, by 
judicious questions and directions, and by assigning ap- 
propriate topics. Timid or slow pupils should be en- 
couraged by kind words and favorable comments. 

IV. GOVERNMENT 

Volumes have been written on this topic alone. But 
if a man teaches well, he will have but little governing 
to do. The tap root of a system of government in 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 39 

school is to furnish all with employment that is interest- 
ing to them and is at the same time conducive to their 
highest mental and moral development. To keep the 
imps of mischief away, put the angels of business on 
guard. This is the Pestalozzian idea. See what this 
great pioneer of education had to say on this subject: 
"If, from the imperfection of his reasoning powers, or 
his want of knowledge of facts, the child is not able to 
enter into the sense or follow the chain of ideas — if he is 
made to repeat what to him is sound without sense, it is 
not strange that he becomes restless and disobedient." 
The great mistake of too many teachers is that they ex- 
pect too much of children. They proceed too much on 
the presumption that a child has the mind of a man and 
will be interested in abstract subjects. Teachers must 
not only furnish the child something to do, but it must 
be something that he can do and will like to. Then he 
will have business and will have no time nor inclination 
for mischief. Nothing is naturally more active than 
the human mind, and especially the mind of a child. It 
craves and seeks for knowledge. If not properly 
directed, it seeks for the bad as well as for the good; 
and we are sometimes inclined to think that it is more 
apt to seek for the bad. If we place a child in a church 
during a sermon and watch his actions, and recall our 
own experience when a child, we can easily imagine his 
thoughts. He is not interested in the sermon because 
he can not understand it. He soon grows tired of see- 
ing the people; and he shifts his position a hundred 
times, counts the panes of glass in the windows, looks 



40 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

at the ceiling and out of the window, and tries every 
possible way tointerest himself except to get into down- 
right mischief, which he longs to do, and would do, were 
it not for parental restraint or the awe of the place and 
the restraint of the people around him. A child goes 
to school and is placed on a seat with others of like dis- 
positions and like restless minds. There is not the awe 
of a church, the dread of parents' frown, nor the dig- 
nity of numerous older heads to restrain him. He is 
assigned a lesson which in great part may as well be for all 
he can understand of it, a portion of Homer's Iliad in the 
original Greek. Can you expect anything else than 
mischief from the child, especially if he has an active 
mind.? There are some children so dull and stupid 
that they never give the teacher any trouble, and when 
grown up will never agitate the world. It is from the 
child which, if not furnished with employment, would 
fall into mischief that the world must expect its 'coming 
man.' 

A teacher must remember then, that here is where he 
will begin to lay the foundations of government. This 
is the solid rock on which he must build. If he suc- 
ceeds perfectly in this, he will have but little else to do. 
With a large school he can not succeed perfectly in 
keeping all employed, but he should do all that he can 
toward this end. 

The teacher should train pupils to govern themselves; 
and only when his best endeavors to this end fail, 
should he resort to coercive measures. Were children 
properly trained, from infancy up, there would never be 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 4 1 

any need of force in governing them. But the teacher 
has not had the charge of these children from infancy; 
and in nine cases out of ten if he had had them in 
charge, he would have failed to train them properly. 
Consequently, force sometimes becomes a neccessity in 
the managing of youth. 

A republican or democratic form of government is 
undoubtedly the best for nations or communities, and, 
to a certain extent, it is best in the school room; but 
there must be a slight savoring of despotism.''^ The 
teacher should be, to some extent, the autocrat of the 
school room. He should endeavor to lay before the 
school a few fundamental principles of goxernment, and 
as far as possible, secure the voice of the majority in en- 
acting and enforcing requirements. But there may be 
cases where it is necessary for the teacher to use his 
own mind, without appealing to the pupils for sanction. 
He should explain to them at the first that as all came 
there to be instructed, it is to the highest interest of all 
that the teacher's whole time should be spent in teach- 
ing; and that if every one would attend only to the 
work necessary to acquire knowledge, there would be 
no necessity for government. 

The teacher, while he does not make a show of watch- 
ing his pupils, should ever be on the alert to detect 
departures from propriety and at once check them. 
A firm stand at the beginning is of great importance. 
One evil act, if permitted to pass unnoticed, may be 

* A note to Wilson S. Gill, Pres. of the Patriotic League, New 
York City, will bring light on this point. 



42 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

followed by a score. A rather rigid discipline at first 
will prevent the necessity of close watching after- 
ward. 

The teacher need say but little about government. 
A system of rules laid down is of more harm than good. 
The general principle, Do Right, is all the rule neces- 
sary. Let the teacher be orderly and systematic in 
everything he undertakes and he will thus unconsciously 
teach order and system to his pupils. 

He should not attempt to keep a school as still 
as a church is while the minister prays. The perform- 
ance of the actual duties of the school room, if carried 
on in an enthusiastic manner, can not be without more 
or less noise. But he should endeavor to check unnec- 
essary noise, and not expect too much of the pupils. 
He must consider that forty pupils will make more 
noise than twenty, and if anyone points him to a quiet 
school, he may ask how many pupils there are. I have 
seen teachers who kept forty and fifty pupils almost as 
still as death; but I never saw very much real progress 
made in studies under such teachers. They were a suc- 
cess so far as keeping a school quiet was concerned, 
and that was all. 

Shall whispering be suppressed } Yes, and no. If it 
is injuring the school, suppress it in part. Some claim 
they can uproot it entirely, but I never did. It was one 
of my impossibilities; but others may do better. Still, 
if a school is small, and pupils study and recite well, I 
can not see what harm there can be in whispering a 
little. If a pupil has plenty of work to do, he will not 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 43 

and the pupils crowded, a great deal of confusion will 
result if each pupil only whispers a little. In such 
cases, the teacher should explain the necessity of re- 
fraining from whispering, and do all in his power to 
check it. He may find it necessary to deprive those 
who persist in it of a part of their recesses. With 
many, merely calling their attention to the fact will 
be all that is necessary. With some, it will have 
a good effect to write their names on the blackboard. 
All this should be done, not so much as a punish- 
ment but as a reminder of the fact that they 
are disturbing the school; and the teacher should so 
explain. Extreme cases may require extreme reme- 
dies; and the teacher should devise his own mode of 
punishment. 

As was said in the beginning of this section, if all are 
employed, very little in the way of government will be 
necessary. It behooves the teacher, therefore, to devise 
ways and means to keep all, from the largest to the small- 
est, employed profitably and pleasurably. He who suc- 
ceeds best in this will succeed best in governing his 
school. Let me make a few suggestions in this matter: 
With large pupils the question of employment will not 
be a difficult one. Provide plenty of written work in 
each of the branches they pursue, and by properly con- 
ducted recitations and a judicious assignment of lessons, 
all the older pupils will be kept properly employed. If 
any wide-awake, active boys or girls are well up with 
their lessons, it will not be improper to allow them to 
spend much time in whispering. If a school is large. 



44 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

read some book or paper in school hours.'" Many a mis- 
chievously inclined boy may be diverted from the mis- 
chief he would fall into, by simply requesting him to 
bring an armful of wood, a bucket of coal, or a pail of 
water. Some pupils are naturally so full of life that un- 
less they are employed constantly, they will easily fall 
into mischief. Such children are sometimes the bright- 
est in the school. Their surplus energies need only to 
be directed in the right channel. Such pupils may be 
requested to write their spelling or reading lessons, or 
place the solution of an example on the blackboard. 
Like the locomotive, they are a power for good so long 
as they are kept on the track; but let them get off the 
track, and they are a power for mischief. I do not like 
to see a child who has not enough energy about him to 
get into mischief. The teacher should be on the watch 
for something useful, to act as a safety valve for such 
vivacious pupils. There is a point worth thinking of 
right here, and it is a lead, which if followed, will yield 
rich results in the way of managing such pupils. ( See 
pp. 45 and 46.) 

No pupil, old or young, should come to' school with- 
out a slate. The teacher should attend to this matter; 
and if he cannot induce parents to purchase slates, it 
will pay him, in the way of securing order in the school- 
room, to buy them, and loan them to the pupils. A 

* A "Book Shelf" or "Reading Table" may be introduced, to 
which as many as will or can may become "lending members," each 
one lending one or more books, magazines, or newspapers, for the use 
of the rest, for the term. The teacher must umpire the matter, so as 
not to have vicious nor even injudicious literature introduced. 



IN COl NTRY SCHOOLS 45 

little talk with the parents in regard to the matter, will, 
however, usually secure the slates. There is nothing 
that will aid so much in keeping pupils occupied as 
slates. The reading and spelling classes will find them 
a necessity in writing or printing their spelling lists, 
and very young pupils, in drawing, printing letters, and 
making figures. The teacher should keep the young 
pupils busy with slates and blocks. 

Simple drawing lessons should be placed on the black- 
board, such as any teacher can give, whether he has 
ever studied drawing or not, as squares, triangles, 
rectangles, parallel lines, stars, boxes, the simple outline 
of a house, a barrel, a cup, etc. Blocks are another 
help in government. Let the teacher go to some 
mechanic's shop; and if he has ordinary ingenuity, he 
can, out of a few pieces of pine board, make a set of 
blocks which can be^ used by both small and large 
pupils : By the small ones to play with, and by large 
ones to represent square and cube root, mensuration 
of solids, etc. Let him make a cube, to illustrate cube 
root, a pyramid, a triangular prism, a parallelopiped, a 
cylinder, and a cone; also, a number of blocks in the 
shape and proportion of bricks, but they need not be 
more than three inches in length. If the teacher can 
not make these himself, it will cost but a trifle to get a 
mechanic to make them. Very young pupils can be 
kept employed for hours in building houses, etc., with 
these blocks. To prev^ent noise, by the falling of the 
blocks on the desk, I have sometimes spread a shawl 
or some newspapers over the desk. Blocks with the 



46 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

alphabet on them can be purchased for a small sum, and 
will be very convenient and useful. 

During warm weather the very young pupils should 
be allowed to play out of doors, after they have recited 
their lessons and practiced for a few minutes with 
slates; but in winter this cannot always be done, and 
some means must be used to keep them employed. 
They may be allowed to draw and print on the black- 
board as an occasional exercise, for a change. Children 
are generally fond of marking with chalk. Every 
school-house should be provided with plenty of black- 
board. (See p. 54.) 

Pupils get tired of sitting still, and thus grow restless. 
For this reason I have provided in the program inter- 
vals of five minutes which I have denominated ^^Resi.'' 
Rest is not necessarily absolute cessation from activity. 
It may be only change. These intervals may be used 
in various ways. To check whispering I have given 
these five-minute intervals for that purpose, allowing 
the pupils to move about the room but not permitting 
them to leave it nor to indulge in boisterous play, but 
that they may stretch their limbs and have a few min- 
utes for conversation. These intervals may be used in 
giving calisthenic exercises, if thought proper; or the 
teacher may give oral drills to the whole school on some 
subject of natural science, or read or relate a story; or 
sometimes it is necessary to talk to the whole school 
on some matter pertaining to government, or about 
something that has occurred in school. I would not 
have any set program for these intervals, but use them 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 47 

sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. 
Variety is the spice of Hfe, and we cannot get along 
without it. If a visitor enters your school do not inter- 
rupt the usual course of your work, but adhere strictly 
to the program; and when the time for ''Rest" comes, 
you may ask him to talk to your school or spend the 
five minutes in talking to him. 

The five minutes in the morning denominated "Gen- 
eral Exercises," may be also used in various ways. 
Exercises may be given which will go far towards 
securing punctual attendance. Read a portion of some 
interesting story each morning, always leaving off in an 
interesting place; or give short lectures on some scien- 
tific subject; or the time may be devoted to matters of 
business, as: announcing special lessons, arranging 
pupils' seats, or providing for a new pupil. 

A strict attention to these seemingly small matters 
will go far towards securing good order in school. 

Very small pupils should not spend the whole day in 
school; but as this is a matter to be settled between 
the teacher and parents, I can only ask the teacher to 
try and make arrangements with parents so that the 
small pupils can be dismissed an hour or two before the 
rest. Some parents will even object to allowing small 
pupils to play out of doors during school hours; but if 
this matter is explained by the teacher, no trouble will 
ensue; and if they are consulted in reference to sending 
small pupils home, the matter can generally be arranged. 
The only objection to this is in the fact that some chil- 
dren have a long way to go to school, and very small 



48 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

children need the company and protection of their older 
brothers and sisters. 

There is no sense nor propriety in keeping small 
children a whole day in school. It is imposing too 
much upon the teacher of an ungraded school. He is 
obliged to teach everything, from the alphabet to alge- 
bra, and to manage all ages from five years old to twenty; 
and I do not see the need of keeping the little ones con- 
fined several hours longer than is necessary for their 
instruction. Therefore, teachers should try to make 
such arrangements with school boards and parents as 
will remedy this matter. 

To recapitulate the matter of government: 

1. Let the teacher teach well. 

2. Let him set an example of order and system by 
being orderly and systematic himself. 

3. Let him provide means to keep all profitably and 
pleasantly employed. 

4. Let him secure the aid of parents and school 
boards and work in harmony with them. 

5. Let him be calm, watchful and firm. 

I can not forbear closing this chapter with an extract 
from Herbert Spencer: ''The independent English boy 
is father of the independent English man; and you can 
not have the last without the first. German teachers 
say that they had rather manage a dozen German boys 
than one English one. Shall we, therefore, wish that 
our boys had the manageableness of the German ones, 
and with it the submissiveness and political serfdom of 
adult Germans? Or, shall we not rather tolerate in our 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 49 

boys those feelings which make them free men, and 
modify our methods accordingly?" What Spencer says 
of the English boy can be, only more emphatically, 
said of the American boy. That independent spirit 
which will not take off the hat to a prince, sooner than 
to a beggar, requires a different kind of government 
from that necessary for that cringing, servile submis- 
siveness which characterizes too many of the Old World 
inhabitants. 

As self-government prevails in our nation, so it 
should prevail in the family and school. If properly 
taught here it will be easy there, and we need not fear 
a downfall of our republic so long as the principles on 
which it is based are taught in the family and school. 
If it is high-minded men who build up a state, it is the 
teacher's duty to make high-minded men out of the boys 
under his control, and thus be the greatest benefactor 
of the race. Ruskin told his countrymen to set their 
minds upon multiplying Englishmen. Let us set our 
minds upon multiplying honorable Americans. The 
teacher of the country school is one of the greatest 
factors in this work. 

THE SCHOOL HOUSE 

I. SCHOOL ARCHrrECTURE 

Not one half enough money is expended in the con- 
struction of school nouses, and much that is expended is 
misdirected; and the result is that in a land of wealth, 
where costly residences, fine court-houses and peniten- 



50 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

tiaries, and elegant churches abound, the great majority 
of the school buildings are miserable shanties, barely 
sufficient to shelter the school from the weather, and 
without yards or trees, or anything which makes a home 
desirable. The school house is not exactly a home, but 
it should be just as attractive a place. Our cities, as a 
rule, it is true, contain fine school houses; and there are, 
also, some very neat, well arranged and attractive school 
houses in the country; but it is the exception rather than 
the rule. Four bare walls of wood, stone or brick, with 
desks and table for the teacher, a rusty stove and rustier 
walls, with a greasy blackboard about three by four 
feet in dimensions, will pretty accurately describe the 
inside of the majority of country school houses, at least, 
those in the Central and Western States. 

Our free school system is a grand and glorious thing, 
and much money is spent for the sustenance of schools; 
yet when we consider the money spent for useless pur- 
poses it is but a trifie. The annual expenditure in the 
United States for sites, buildings, furniture, libraries 
and apparatus is but a little for a country like ours. 
Compare this with the cost of punishing crime, or with 
the amount annually expended for liquors and tobacco. 
The people can be taxed to no better purpose, certainly, 
than that of educating their children. It is a fact that 
as education of the masses increases, crime and its con- 
sequences decrease; consequently it is a good invest- 
ment, for it is a saving to the country of a large propor- 
tion of the amount necessary to punish crime as well as 
the loss of property consequent upon crime. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 5 I 

It frequently happens that a sufficient sum of 
money is appropriated for buildings and apparatus, 
but so misdirected that it fails to answer any good 
purpose. 

Practical teachers are rarely consulted when a country 
school house is to be built. I have seen some very 
costly buildings that were miserable failures as school 
houses. One third less money would have built better 
houses for the purpose, if it had been properly applied. 
For example, I have one in mind just now which cost a 
large sum of money. There were two small ante-rooms, 
so arranged that they were of little practical use; and to 
conceal the want of symmetry, caused by so arranging 
the rooms, a blind window was made between the en- 
tries to them. A belfry costing a large sum, and made 
more for ornament than for use, though not very orna- 
mental, was placed on the top. An attempt was made 
to construct a blackboard in the wall; but it was a 
failure, from want of a little knowledge, and conse- 
quently was never used for that purpose. 

It is the duty of teachers, even at the risk of being 
thought meddlesome, to advise with school boards when 
new houses are to be built, and see that what money is 
expended is used to the best purpose. But how can 
teachers instruct others unless they are themselves in- 
formed in this matter.*^ The question of school archi- 
tecture is one of great importance, and not enough 
attention is paid to it by teachers. Teachers should 
first urge sufficient expenditure, and then help see that 
it is properly applied. 



52 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Below are a few suggestions as to how I think coun- 
try school houses should be constructed: 

1. Location. As the distance to be traversed by the 
pupils must be taken into consideration, not a very wide 
latitude of choice is allowable in this respect ; but when 
possible, a high ground should be chosen, near a natural 
forest, and far enough away from the public highway to 
be free from the noise, dust and danger of passing 
vehicles. How often do we see these points disregarded ! 
Country school-houses are often "stuck in a mud hole" 
and so close to the road side that passing vehicles may 
rub against their sides. 

2. Sjwroiindiiigs. Land is not excessively dear in 
this country, and there can be no excuse for not having 
ample grounds in connection with the school house. 
There should not be less than five acres in the Western 
States. In the older States where land is now higher, 
perhaps a less space may be all than can be expected. 
The ground should be enclosed with a neat fence; 
and if not naturally furnished with trees, the more hardy 
kinds of forest trees should be planted — not in straight 
rows, but in groups as they grow naturally, leaving a 
large space at a sufficient distance from the house, for 
a playground for ball and such games as require open 
ground. All out-buildings should be at the back of the 
school house some distance, and screened by trees. I 
will say nothing of laying off flower beds and planting 
shrubbery, though intensely desirable, as I fear that we 
are not all quite ready for that. 

3. Size. There is little danger of getting a school 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 53 

house too large. I have yet to meet with a country 
school house too large for the number of pupils. Here 
comes in the matter of expense; and here is where 
teachers must fight the parsimony that will crowd a 
number of children together like cattle in a pen. 

A school house to accommodate sixty pupils should 
not be less than thirty-two by forty feet in dimensions, 
and should include a hall and two ante-rooms. This will 
give ample room for desks, recitation seats, platform and 
aisles, and desks need not be placed too close to the 
stove. The ceiling should be at least ten feet high. 
For a smaller school the building need not be quite so 
large, perhaps in some districts not more than twenty- 
six by thirty-four feet. 

4. Plan. The following plan for a country school 
house is calculated to seat sixty-two pupils, and give 
all ample accommodations. It will, at least, prove 
suggestive. For convenience in studying geography, 
as well as for other reasons, the pupils should be seated 
facing the north, the door entering at the south and the 
north a dead wall, windows being on the east and west 
sides. 

The small room on the right of the hall can be used 
for hanging clothes, keeping dinner baskets, a small 
supply of fuel, kindlings, etc. The room on the left I 
have denominated the teacher's room; but it may be 
used for a variety of purposes. A school library may 
be kept here, also all apparatus when not in use; and 
if occasion requires, it may be used as a recitation room. 
The stove, it will be observed, is far enough from any 



54 



BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



N 



5- 



10 



5- 



W 



10 



5- 



12 




I I 




-5 



lO 



-5 



E 



-5 



14 



10 



Outside Door. 
Inside Door. 

3. Door to Clothes Room. 

4. Door to Teacher's Room. 

5. Windows. 
Platform 10 inches. 



Teacher's Desk. 
Stove. 

Recitation Seats. 
Blackboards. 
Desks for 62 Pupils. 
Movable Seats. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 55 

pupil's desk and opposite and near to the door, the 
advantage of which will be seen when we come to speak 
of ventilation. A large blackboard can be made the 
full width of the room, at the north end and facing the 
school; while smaller blackboards can be made between 
the windows. The windows are all at the sides, an ar- 
rangement better suited to the eyes of the pupils than 
if facing them. They should be made high, so that the 
light will shine rather down on the pupils. The aisles 
should be two feet or more in width. 

Such a building will cost a little more than such as 
are usually built; but when once built, it will last just 
as long as a smaller one and will certainly pay in an 
educational sense. 

5. Construction and ]\Iaterial. School houses may 
be made of wood, stone, brick or concrete; but of what- 
ever material, they should be well built, and the mate- 
rial should be of the best quality of the kind. No 
bungling workmen should have the contract. 

The great objection to large rooms with high ceilings 
is that they are inclined to echo and increase sounds. 
This may be obviated in a great measure by so plan- 
ning the floor as to deaden the sound. Architects can 
accomplish this; and it should be a part of the specifi- 
cations. 

Floors should be made of hard wood, the boards 
being narrow and well joined, so as not to warp. The 
room should be ceiled with boards, to a height of three 
or four feet all around. The windows should have 
: 'mtters on the outside. 



56 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Blackboards should be made in the wall. Perhaps 
the best is made by mixing lampblack and flour of 
emery with plaster of Paris, and put on as the last coat 
of plastering, the same as a hard finish. 

It would lessen the expense somewhat to set the roof 
down lower and make the ceiling arched or higher in 
the middle than at the sides. Thus, at a less expense 
for material, the same or a greater amount of space 
would be gained. 

II. APPARATUS 

Many school houses in this country have not one 
piece of apparatus, not even a wall map. This is a 
deplorable state of affairs, and I hope it will not al- 
ways be thus. I am not going to advocate the pur- 
chasing of costly apparatus. There is no need of it; 
but there are a few articles which no school board 
should neglect to furnish. Among these are a good 
set of wall maps, a small globe, an unabridged dic- 
tionary, and charts for teaching penmanship and pri- 
mary reading. Besides these, there might be a cyclo- 
pedia of general information, a tellurian to illustrate 
mathematical geography, a set of mathematical blocks, 
set of alphabet blocks, a numeral frame, a number of 
small rulers with scale of inches marked, and a yard 
stick. Some of these may be easily made by the 
teacher. 

According to Webster's definition of apparatus, viz. : 
"Things provided as means to some end," it will not 
be improper to include a library as among the appara- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 57 

tus of a school. I have already mentioned two works 
of reference; but there are many books not only valu- 
able for reference, but for the common use of the chil- 
dren and youth of our country schools. It seems to me 
that with such school house such as I have here described, 
a library should be started. I hope that the day is not 
far distant when each country school house will be con- 
structed on some plan similar to the one described, 
when in the teacher's room there will be a book case 
well filled with reading matter and works of reference 
suitable to the young and for the benefit of the teacher. 
Such a library can be kept under lock and key and the 
teacher constituted a librarian, books only to be had 
during session of the school. 

The Legislature of Ohio once voted a school library 
to be kept in each district, and the books to be ex- 
changed periodically. Within a few years the books 
were scattered and most of them lost, and finally what 
were left were gathered up and sold. It seems to me 
that such a state of affairs does not argue a very highly 
civilized state of society. If parents took that interest 
in the education of their children which they should 
take, such would not be the case. 

I think that if each district would furnish its own 
library, and school boards would see to it that teachers 
did their duty as librarians (and if teachers were alive 
to their work they would need but little watching), a 
great revolution in the state of society might be accom- 
plished in a few years. Certain books, such as are not 
used for reference, might be exchanged from one dis- 



58 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

trict to another at certain intervals, thus keeping up 
new interest. The school house should be the literary 
center of the rural community. These libraries would 
be excellent helps to literary societies which could hold 
meetings at the school house during winter evenings. 

Public exhibitions, festivals, etc., might be given, and 
the proceeds devoted to purchasing a library for the 
school. Other apparatus might be procured in a similar 
manner. 

III. VENTILATION 

I shall not occupy space in speaking of the evils of 
badly ventilated rooms. Every person of intelligence 
knows the advantages of thorough ventilation. 

A room is well ventilated when there is a free access 
of fresh air and a free exit for the foul air, and when no 
one is exposed to cold draughts. The bad effects from 
draughts are almost as great an evil as the breathing of 
impure air. The majority of, in fact nearly all, country 
school houses are so constructed that they can not be 
ventilated without exposing pupils to cold draughts of 
air. If a window is raised at the bottom, the cold air 
rushes in and strikes those sitting near it; and if it is 
lowered from the top, the cold air falls upon the heads 
of the children. 

Air that has been inhaled by the lungs contains car- 
bonic acid gas, as well as organic matters resulting from 
the waste of animal tissue. This carbonic acid is heavier 
than common air when cold, but when warmed it is 
lighter than common cool air. The consequence is that 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 59 

when exhaled from the kings it rises, but gradually 
descends as it becomes cooled. If an opening is made 
near the top of the room, it will pass out readily, provided 
there is a sufficient opening at the bottom to admit a 
corresponding amount of fresh air. If there is an 
admission of cool air from below and an opening made 
at the top there will be two currents estabhshed side by 
side, one of cold air coming in and the other of warm, 
foul air passing out. The cold air will fall down to the 
bottom of the room and force the warmer air up. An 
interesting experiment may be performed by the teacher 
to illustrate this principle of ventilation. When a room 
which contains a fire has been closed for some time, let 
the door be opened for the space of an inch or more, and 
hold a lighted candle opposite the crack. If it is held 
near the top the flame will be blown outward; if near 
the bottom, it will be blown inward, and if near the 
middle it will remain steady, showing plainly the direc- 
tion of the currents of air. 

As a simple and effective means of ventilating a 
school-room, I would recommend the following: Make 
a wooden spout, say six inches or more in diameter, to 
pass from beneath the stove to the outside of the 
building, under the floor. An opening is to be made in 
the floor under the stove. At the end of the room 
farthest from the stove make a similar spout, to extend 
from the floor to the roof, with openings at the top and 
bottom and in the middle, with slides to shut when 
necessary. When a fire is made, the air around the 
stove becomes heated and, rising, circulates through the 



6o BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

room and passes out at the openings in the upright 
spout. A fresh supply of cold air is drawn through the 
tube under the floor, and in turn becomes heated and 
circulates through the room. The windows and doors 
may be shut perfectly tight, and yet there will be good 
ventilation. 

Heat is conducted from a stove through a room in 
two ways — by convection and by radiation. By the 
former is meant that the air in immediate contact with 
the stove becomes heated and, rising, its place is supplied 
by cool air, which goes through the same process. By 
radiation is meant that heat is thrown off from the stove 
in direct rays, the same as light from a lamp. To 
prevent this heating by radiation, some device must be 
applied, because those sitting near the stove get too 
warm, while those at a distance may suffer with cold. 
A piece of sheet-iron or tin should be placed so as to 
surround the stove on all sides, except top and bottom^ 
at the distance of four or five inches. The stove should 
always stand near the door of the room to receive the 
cool air when the door is opened. A room ventilated 
and warmed as above described will not be an unhealth- 
ful place for human beings. 

But what are you going to do, teacher, if you are 
obliged to teach in a room not properly ventilated.'' 
Rather than open a window and expose some pupil to a 
draught, which will be the case in most houses, open 
doors and windows wide at each recess and noon, and 
allow a thorough change of air. When pupils are in 
motion the draughts will not hurt them. Or a window 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 6l 

may be opened and the opening screened by a board so 
as to prevent a direct draught. If the stove is near the 
door, as it should be, open the door a little way to admit 
air, provided the pupils are not so seated that the air 
will strike them. 

An attention to these matters will often prevent cases 
of colds which might result in disease producing death. 
A close, illy ventilated room will also make restless 
pupils, and government will be more difficult in such a 
room. The teacher is responsible in great measure for 
the health and comfort of his pupils. 



62 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



METHODS OF TEACHING 

READING 

To be a good reader is a most desirable accomplish- 
ment. As reading is taught in our ungraded schools 
we can not say that it is a success. The hesitation and 
drawl of too many school boys and the sing-song tone 
of, alas, too many ministers are simply abominable. 
Yet much time is spent in all our schools in the acquisi- 
tion of this art. The results should be more satis- 
factory. 

To make a good reader requires, first, a knowledge 
of the principles of elocution; second, much practice. 

In order to teach the principles of elocution, the 
teacher himself should have a knowledge of them. Too 
many teachers are wofully deficient in this respect. It 
must be remembered that a strict observance of the 
rules for articulation, inflection, accent and emphasis, 
pitch, gesture, etc., will not make a good reader or 
speaker. He should enter into the spirit and meaning 
of the author. He must understand and //?^/ what he 
reads or speaks. The rules of elocution have many ex- 
ceptions; so much so that they seem arbitrary. The 
best orators are children and Indians, because they 
speak the language of nature, and are not drilled into 
artificial modes of expression by unnatural customs. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 63 

The teacher should endeavor to improve himself in 
this noble art. He should practice much, reading aloud 
and declaiming, at the same time studying the principles 
of elocution, as found in our school readers. He should 
first try to find out his own faults and set himself to 
remedy them. If he finds he does not articulate well, 
he should practice on this branch until he has improved 
his enunciation. In the same manner let him correct, 
by drilling himself, any other faults of expression that 
he may possess. Let the country teacher, after his 
pupils have gone home in the evening, read and declaim 
to the empty seats for half an hour each day the lessons 
in the readers. The time thus spent will repay him 
many fold. It will elevate him, not only among teach- 
ers but among all classes. 

It is expected of a teacher, above all others, that he 
should possess the art of expressing himself. The 
American people are a nation of readers, but there are 
comparatively few good readers among them. It is 
true that a republic is the best calculated to develop 
oratory, and we have many of the greatest orators in the 
world; yet we should have more of them and more who 
should be above mediocrity in this respect. It is the 
duty of the country teacher to manufacture many of the 
future orators of America. Let him fit himself by 
careful study and constant drill for this purpose. 

Now that the country teacher is obliged to teach 
everything, from A B C to algebra, it is not to be sup- 
posed that he will have the time to give to the subject 
of reading which the teacher of a graded school can 



64 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

have; but what time he has should be economized and 
profitably used. The time devoted to each class, of 
course, will vary with the number of branches taught in 
the school, the number of pupils, and, perhaps, with 
other circumstances. For example, in some schools, 
will be found algebra, physiology, history, and, perhaps, 
two grades each of grammar and geography, while in 
other schools there may be neither of the first three, and 
only one class each in the last two. The time, there- 
fore, must vary with circumstances. (See p. 28.) 

Teaching Beginnei^s to Read 

There are various methods in vogue for teaching be- 
ginners to read. Each one has its advocates, who 
strenuously hold to their particular methods, just as the 
different schools of medicine or the different denomina- 
tions of religious believers hold to their respective 
dogmas. Now, I do not wish to be behind the times 
and advise my readers to follow a method which the 
present age has voted down; but I have some serious ob- 
jections to following exclusively any method which has 
yet been invented. There are some methods, as the 
various phonic methods, which in theory seem to be just 
the thing; and the enthusiastic young teacher will likely 
be carried away by the specious arguments used in their 
favor by some of our educators, who, having watched 
them in the quiet of their study rooms, and never hav- 
ing given them a practical test in the school-room, are 
prepared to denounce anyone as an old fogy or an 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 65 

ignoramus who will not at once fall in love with them. 
I have personal knowledge of at least one prominent 
educator who is an ardent advocate of what he calls the 
phonetic or normal method, and who has never taught a 
class of children in his life. 

The different methods maybe enumerated as follows: 
The Alphabetic Method, the Word or Webb Method, 
the Phonic Method. Of the latter there are several 
varieties. 

TJie Alphabetic Method is the one by which the most 
of us, perhaps, were taught and the one which is in use 
in the greater number of country schools to-day. It 
needs no explanation, being simply the teaching of the 
names of the letters of the alphabet and the combining 
of them into words. The objection made to it is that it 
teaches the names of the letters only, and not their 
powers and sounds, and that it is analytic rather than 
synthetic. 

TJie Word or Webb Method hdi^ many advocates. By 
this method the learner is taught first a number of words 
as wholes. Objects or pictures of objects are shown to 
the pupils and they are taught to call the words which 
represent them at sight. Words are combined in sen- 
tences, and the child is thus taught to read before he 
knows a single letter. The letters are then, it is 
claimed, learned very readily by separating the words 
into their component letters. The advantages claimed 
for this method over the former are that it is synthetic 
rather than analytic, and that it can be made much 
more interesting to children, words representing ideas 



66 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

being more easily grasped as wholes than letters, which 
are but arbitrary signs. 

TJie PJionic ATethod clmms superiority over the others 
from the fact that as our alphabet contains only twenty- 
six letters to represent about forty sounds, by teaching 
the sounds of the letters rather than their names, the 
many difficulties of pronouncing our language are 
obviated. As before stated there are several varieties 
of the phonic method. Some have tried to overcome 
the difficulties by having the sounds of the letters indi- 
cated by marks over or under them, as they are in the 
dictionary. Others have the primers printed to repre- 
sent the different sounds by means of different styles of 
type; and others still by using different characters for 
each sound. 

It will be useless to discuss these different methods. 
I have only briefly described them that the teacher 
may not be ignorant of them. If circumstances per- 
mit, it will be well for the teacher to try the new 
methods and thus be able to decide for himself. I" 
will here state only a few facts concerning the matter 
of teaching beginners in country schools, and then 
describe the method I have used with the greatest 
success : 

1. A great many children learn the alphabet, and 
some to spell a little, before they are sent to school. 

2. The country teacher will find in many schools 
only one, or at most only two or three pupils, who can 
not read quite well in the first reader. 

3. Children love to put things together, to build up. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 67 

as well as they love to take things apart or tear down. 
Both synthesis and analysis should be used in teaching. 

4. Children learn almost unconsciously the sounds 
of the letters by naming the letters in familiar words 
and hearing the words pronounced. Thus it is rarely 
that a child needs be told twice that c-a-t spells cat, 
although the sounds of the letters, as heard in the word, 
are not the same as the names of the letters. The con- 
verse is true, that even advanced pupils will hesitate 
about pronouncing a word which is unfamiliar to them, 
even though it be a word of very easy construction. 

5. It is a rather difficult matter to get a child to give 
the sound of a letter alone. In pronouncing words, he 
gives the sounds of the letters combined; but if you 
attempt to get a child to give, say the short sound of a 
in caty you will find that he does not seem to compre- 
hend what you mean, and he will hesitate to repeat the 
sound after the teacher. 

6. The fact is, the child has been accustomed from 
infancy to pronouncing words, i.e. giving the sounds of 
letters combined in such a way that they represent 
ideas which he has previously acquired ; and sounds 
alone and letters alone represent to his mind no ideas 
at all. This is why it is a difficult matter to teach the 
alphabet or its sounds. 

From the above facts, and from my own experience, 
I have found the following method, which may be 
termed the ''Ecletic Method," the most applicable in a 
country school : 

If no suitable books or charts are at hand, I first 



68 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

show the class a simple object, as a box, asking its name. 
Then I show them a picture of a box in a book, or 
draw its picture on the blackboard. Then I print the 
word box on the board. Then I tell them that the word is 
made up of letters, asking them how many, and naming 
each letter for them, require them to repeat them after 
me. Then the word is pronounced slowly, so as to 
somewhat isolate each sound. Next I take a word 
having the same letters, or part of them, and drill in the 
same manner. The word ox would appropriately follow 
box, or at follow cat. A few letters are learned at a 
time; they are learned by using them; and their pow- 
ers are learned at the same time. I so proceed until all 
the letters are used by their use in words that are 
already familiar, and easy of pronunciation. As soon as 
a few words are learned I combine them into sentences, 
and the pupils read them until they have become quite 
familiar. The books may be used sometimes, when 
they contain pictures and words which are applicable. 
Charts containing pictures and easy words will be found 
quite convenient. When a letter is learned by the 
pupil, he may be shown a printed page and exercised in 
finding out the letters from among others. Blocks with 
the letters printed on them are very useful. With 
them words can be put together and taken apart. 

An ingenious teacher will find many ways of varying 
the lessons and making them interesting. Pupils, 
while learning to read, may be taught some ideas of 
number. This will vary the exercises and will interest 
the pupils. They may be required to count the letters 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 69 

in a word, the words in a sentence, the windows in the 
room or the number of panes in the windows, etc. 
There are some letters so nearly alike in form that 
pupils sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between 
them, for instance b and d and p and q. The teacher 
may show them how they are made, that is with a 
straight line and a curve either at top, bottom, right or 
left sides. The pupils should be required to form the 
letters with pencil or chalk. This will give employment 
and help fix the forms of the letters in their minds. 

As soon as the letters are learned, exercise should be 
given in pronouncing words, and continued until they 
can call a great number of easy and familiar words at 
sight. Words having a similarity of sound, provided 
they are simple and convey ideas with which the pupil 
is already familiar, may be arranged in columns and 
pronounced first down the column and then across the 
page. In this way words are learned by their resem- 
blance to each other, and a test is made by pronouncing 
across the columns. 

FIRST READER 

As soon as the child has learned to call a number of 
words readily at sight, attention should be paid to the 
following points: 

I. Secure Distinct Articulation 

The teacher should see that the child opens his 
mouth properly and articulates every sound fully and 
clearly. He should never allow a word to pass until 



70 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

satisfied that the pupil has articulated it as distinctly as it 
seems possible for him to do. There are defects of the 
vocal organs which may be remedied in great measure 
by practice; but it is not expected that a teacher 
should devote the time necessary to cure stammering 
and similar defects. This should be done at home or 
in schools specially for that purpose. Words of the 
lesson which are difficult to pronounce may be printed 
on the blackboard, and the class may pronounce them 
in rotation or occasionally in concert. The pupils may 
spell the difficult words from the book and pronounce 
them. The teacher may then pronounce them and the 
pupils spell them without looking on the book. He 
may then let them read a paragraph or to a period. 

2. Secure Natural Tones a7id Delivery 

Pupils must not drawl their words. Right here 
many bad readers are made, if attention is not paid to 
this point. This drawling habit will go with them 
through life. The teacher may read the sentence for 
them and have them read it as they would talk it. The 
use of the period and interrogation point should be 
taught. Other punctuation marks may be deferred for 
the present. 

3. See that Pupils Take a Proper Position 

The posture, whether sitting or standing, should be 
erect, with shoulders thrown back. Pupils should not 
lean on anything. This is a very bad habit and should 
be promptly corrected. If it is not, the habit of loung- 



TN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 7I 

ing will be likely to go with them through life. This 
is one of the greatest faults with which a country 
teacher has to contend. Pupils should stand with their 
heels nearly together and their toes apart, at an angle of 
about forty-five degrees. For a rest and change, one 
foot may be thrown out so that the heel comes oppo- 
site the instep of the other foot. They may change 
weight of body from one foot to the other, as often as 
necessary to prevent weariness. 

4. Cultivate Pei'ception and Language 
Questions may be asked upon the subject matter of 
the lessons. A picture may be shown and they asked 
to point out the objects. An easy sentence may be put 
on the blackboard, leaving a word to be supplied by the 
pupil. This will do for an occasional exercise. 

5. Prepare for tJie Next Lesson 
Difficult words should be pronounced. They may be 
placed upon the board. Pupils may print on their 
slates a certain number of words of the next lesson. 
This will give them occupation at their seats. A cer- 
tain number of words may be given to print; and it 
should be a less number than is given at the head of the 
lesson, letting them select what they think are the hard- 
est words. In this way they exercise their judgment, 
and it pleases them to be allowed to select the words. 

SECOND READER 

Methods used in the first reader may be continued, if 
necessary, to secure the points indicated under that head. 



72 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

More difficult questions upon the subject matter of 
the lesson may be asked. The use of the comma and 
semicolon is to be taught. An occasional concert drill, 
something after this manner, may be given : 

The teacher reads a sentence, if it be a short one, or 
a part of a sentence, if it be too long, and the class 
reads after him. Repeat, until all can begin and end 
at the same instant. In this way the fast readers are 
checked and the slow ones hurried up. They may imi- 
tate the teacher's tones and expression as nearly as pos- 
sible. The most difficult parts of the lesson may be 
read in this way. The exercise may be varied by ask- 
ing questions about the punctuation marks or about the 
subject matter of what is read. 

More attention to the spelling of the words at the head 
of the lesson should now be given. A greater number 
should be assigned to copy on slates than were copied from 
the first reader. Words that are missed by all the class 
may be printed on the blackboard and spelled in con- 
cert by the class. 

Emphasis and inflection may be taught by imitation. 

THIRD READER 

Exercises given in the second reader are to be contin- 
ued and made more difficult. The use of italic letters, 
the apostrophe when it is used in contracting words, and 
the use of capital letters should be taught at this stage. 
Pupils are to be shown that the name of every person or 
place, the names of the days of the week, and names of 
the months, the words / and O, and the first word after 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 73 

every period always begin with a capital letter. The 
other rules for the use of capitals may be omitted for 
the present. These points are fixed by frequent drills. 
It is a good exercise to write a sentence occasionally on 
the board, omitting capitals where they should belong 
and placing them where they should not, and have the 
class correct it. Exercises in correcting false spelling 
may also be given. 

The pupil should be taught to write as well as print 
the spelling lists. Most pupils reading in the third 
reader are able to write well, and they should be required 
to do so. 

The meaning of the more difficult words in the next 
lesson should be given. The class may define the words; 
if no one can give the meaning, the teacher may give it, 
and tell them he will ask them at the next recitation. 
He can easily overdo this matter of defining words. It 
is best to talk to the class in a familiar way about the 
words, giving their meaning by their use in easy sen- 
tences. It is better even that they should pass some 
words which they do not know, rather than too great a 
tax be put upon their minds or too much time consumed 
by the teacher. (See page yS.) 

Exercises in articulation may be given, something, 
after this manner: A word, as nighty is written on the 
blackboard, and the teacher asks the class to pronounce 
it. Then the teacher asks how many letters in the 
word, then spells it by sound, requiring the class to 
repeat the sounds after him, then asking how many 
sounds in the word, what letters are silent, etc. 



74 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

• 
Exercises for articulation should always be real words, 

not mere combinations of letters to represent certain 

sounds. It is an error to drill children in pronouncing 

such combinations as fwoiy dofsty tifst^ etc. 

FOURTH READER 

The exercises given in the third reader are to be kept 
up where necessary. 

More frequent drills on emphasis and inflection may 
be given. The use of inflection marks, quotation marks 
and hyphen are to be taught. Class may criticise each 
others' reading. It is a good exercise occasionally to 
allow the class to remain at the desks, the teacher calling 
out one at a time to step upon the rostrum and read a 
paragraph or two, the others criticising his position, tone, 
expression, etc. 

One or more words may be assigned to each pupil to 
spell and define from memory at the next recitation. 
The teacher may add to the words, at the head of the 
lesson, others, requesting the pupils to go to the dic- 
tionary for their meaning. Teachers should show how 
to find words in the dictionary. Pupils may be required 
to write the word and its definition on the slate. Occa- 
sionally a sentence may be written on the board, con- 
taining proper names, common abbreviations, contrac- 
tions of words, etc., and pupils required to copy on 
slates. This should also be made an exercise in penman- 
ship. Common rules for the use of capitals and frequent 
drills, to fix them, are to be given. 

As members of the fourth reader class usually have 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS * 75 

other studies, not so much time need be spent writing 
the spelHng lists as in the third reader. 

ADVANCED READING 

Under this head come fifth and sixth readers as 
usually found in common schools. Methods used in the 
fourth reader are to be continued, and practice frequently 
had upon the exercises given under the rules of elocu- 
tion in the books. The attention of the class may be 
called to the rules which should govern them in the 
piece to be read. Passages which illustrate particular 
rules in the next lesson should be read and commented 
upon by the teacher as a preliminary drill. Geographical 
and historical points in the lesson may be explained. 
Beauties and excellencies of authors are to be pointed 
out, and anything known regarding their lives and which 
would be interesting to the class is to be told. Instruc- 
tion may be given upon versification so far as pointing 
out the kinds of poetic feet, kinds of verse and poetic 
license. These matters to be governed by the powers 
of the pupils, the time allotted, and the teacher's qualifi- 
cations. (See page 28.) 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 

The teacher should, in teaching reading, hold con- 
stantly in mind two aims, viz. : first, to secure a proper 
oral expression of written or printed composition; second, 
to develop and increase the power of grasping thought. 
The first point is to be secured by constant drill and 



76 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

practice in the management of the voice. In the culti- 
vation of the voice four points are to be considered: 
qiiajitityy quality, compass and movement. 

Emphasis, force, stress, slur and accent are all modi- 
fications of quantity. These parts should be taught 
from the first reader up, in primary classes mainly by 
imitation of the teacher. The greatest failing in schools 
comes under this head. One half of the pupils in all 
our schools do not read sufficiently loud and strong. 
Teachers should take particular pains to remedy this 
by constant effort from the beginning of the pupil's 
school life. The teacher should stand at a distance 
from the pupils and require them to read loud enough 
to be heard in all parts of the room. He should give 
frequent exercise in pronouncing the vowel sounds, 
words and sentences, with different degrees of force. 

The most difficult part of vocal culture, perhaps, is 
quality of the voice. In order to read in a proper tone, 
the reader must place himself in the position of the 
author and enter into his very soul, that he may express 
his feelings. The pupil must understand the nature of 
the sentiment before he can give the proper tone. Much 
may be learned by imitating the teacher, especially with 
very young pupils. 

Nothing but careful training can give the proper 
pitch and inflection of the voice ; and ability to read well 
depends greatly upon this power. Certain vowel sounds, 
as a or o, or words as do, ra, may be given in different 
keys, until the class is able to pitch their voices upon 
any key within their compass. Drills in inflection may 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS "J'] 

be given by arranging a series of words and sentences 
in the form of questions and answers, requiring one 
portion of the class to give the question and the other 
the answer. 

Under the head of movement come rate and pause. 
Many pupils habitually read too fast, while others are 
too slow. Concert reading, as an occasional practice, is 
good to regulate this and other matters. The marks of 
punctuation, of course, are not to be disregarded; but 
there are other pauses required by the sense, and the 
pupil must understand what he is reading or he can not 
give them. Paragraphs may be selected by the teacher 
and the class drilled in reading them with reference to 
rate and pause. 

TJie Teacher Should Endeavor to Develop the Power 
of Grasping TJionght 

A good reader is able to grapple with a whole sen- 
tence, almost at a glance, and take in its full purport. 
This part of mental training is very much neglected 
everywhere. But few persons, comparatively, know 
how to read a book so as to get at the substance of it. 
We must know how, as it were, to swoop down upon a 
mass of words and bear away the ideas expressed. 
With many writers the words are so many, and the ideas 
are so few and so well concealed, that it requires the 
penetrating eye of a hawk and the power of a magnet to 
discover and drag out the gems of truth from the mass 
of rubbish. The teacher can do much by asking 
numerous questions upon the subject matter of what is 



78 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

read. The question should be asked in various ways, 
so as to draw out the full meaning of the author. As 
an example of the method of asking questions to begin- 
ners, I give the following:* 

The trees lift up their green heads in the bright light 
of spring. 

Question. What lift up their green heads.? 

Answer. The trees. 

Question. In what do they lift up their green heads? 

Answer. In the bright light of spring. 

Question. What kind of heads do they lift up.? 

Answer. Green heads. 

Question. What kind of light is spoken of? 

Answer. Bright light. 

Questioit. Light of what? 

Answer. Light of spring. 

Single sentences may be taken in this way and ana- 
lyzed until the pupils see the full force of what they 
have read. Questions of an entirely different character 
should also be given on the entire lesson, questions 
which should be answered in the pupil's own language. 
Such questions will not only test the fact of their under- 
standing of the lesson, but develop their power of ex- 
pression and cultivate language. Examples of such 
questions are given in most readers. 

It should not be expected of pupils that they under- 
stand absolutely everything they read. There are many 
words of which they may have an idea, yet not a com- 

* This method is easily run into a cut-and-dried rote which is stulti- 
fying. Beware of excess. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 79 

plete one, ana many expressions of which they can not 
see the full force and meaning; but these things will be 
learned as they grow older. Again; a pupil may have 
a pretty good idea of the meaning of a word, yet not be 
able to express his meaning in words. This is the case 
with all of us, especially with many familiar words which 
we use every day. To test this, pupils may be asked to 
give a definition of stove, chair, table, etc. A teacher 
may try to give a definition of these words. I venture 
to assert that not one out of a thousand can give a com- 
plete definition of these words. (See page 73.) 

Our text books are not always just what they should 
be. Many of the lessons for young children are too far 
above their comprehension ; and others are as far below 
the average. 

Many teachers assert that pupils should be assigned 
very short reading lessons, and that these should be 
read over and over again until they are thoroughly 
understood and can be read with a great degree of per- 
fection. This, I thinkj is a mistake. It is a hobby I 
used to ride myself, but I found it an unsafe one, from 
this fact: Children soon tire of one thing, and a piece 
read over so many times becomes almost disgusting; less 
interest will be taken in it, and consequently less pro- 
gress made. Our reading books should be twice as 
large and twice as many. But an item of expense 
comes in here which is quite an objection. If we could 
only have many more lessons, each one illustrating the 
same points in elocution, but in which the matter is 
different and consequently always something new and 



8o BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

interesting, I think much greater progress would be 
made. The rule will apply all the way from beginners 
up. As soon as a child has learned to call a dozen 
words at sight, these words should be arranged in as 
many sentences as possible, each sentence expressing 
a new thought or expressing it in a new way. 

All children love stories. The juvenile papers and 
magazines and nursery books all have a great influence 
in teaching children and youth to read. How much 
more progress would be made if they read them under 
the eye of a teacher than by themselves. But as we 
must accept our text books as they are, for the present 
at least, what can the country teacher do in this case.-* 

In many schools reading classes are small, sometimes 
not more than two or three, and owing to the irregular 
attendance in country schools, there will be many days 
when some one or more of the classes in reading will 
have but two or three pupils. In such cases assign a 
lesson from a newspaper; a Sunday-School paper, a 
juvenile magazine, or any book in which you may find 
stories or descriptive sketches suited to the wants of 
your particular class. The pupils can take the paper or 
book in turn and read the piece over, or copy certain 
parts of it on their slates; and when the recitation 
comes they may look on the same book, or, each one 
having copied his own part, pay strict attention to the 
others reading their parts, and criticisms may be made 
by the class. The teacher may take a story from a 
newspaper and cut into sections, giving each one a sec- 
tion, and require it to be copied on slates and read from 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 8l 

the slate at recitation. This can be made an exercise 
in speUing, capitals, punctuation and penmanship. 

Country teachers might club together and write or 
select from books or papers pieces suited to all their 
classes and have them printed in their county paper. A 
number of copies of the paper may be taken by the club 
and each teacher use them in turn. If they are taken 
care of they may be used for many schools. Country 
editors can easily be induced to print such matter if the 
object is explained to them. In fact, if a club is formed 
and a number of copies taken, it will be to their advan- 
tage to do so. Other matter in these papers, such as 
marriage and death notices, local news, advertisements, 
etc., may be used in advanced classes, as an occasional 
variation from the monotony of the text book. In this, 
as in other parts of teaching, the teacher should bend 
every faculty to his work. 

In all his reading, which should embrace a wide 
scope, he should be on the lookout for whatever may 
benefit his classes. Little stories and sketches are 
found almost every day by a general reader; and the 
teacher should try to secure and preserve them for 
future use. * 

Occasional reading lessons from the geographies, 
grammars, arithmetics and histories may be given to 
vary the exercises. The Constitution of the United 
States, the Declaration of Independence, Articles of 
Confederation, etc., to be found in school histories, 

* Pasted on small sheets of manilla paper, and put into large strong 
envelopes, they will be durable and convenient. 



82 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

should be read one or more times during a term by ad- 
vanced classes. 

Besides the methods outlined there are several others 
in use, including The Sentence Method, Group Method, 
Object, Action, Ward, and Pollard MetJiods. 

The Sentence Method of teaching reading has had 
many and enthusiastic advocates. They claim that as 
the sentence is the unit of vocal expression, the reading 
should be based upon this principle. Children are 
taught to recognize a complete sentence, and to read it, 
then to select separate words from it, and so learn 
words, phrases, and letters, even, after having learned 
to read the sentence. It has at least one advantage: 
The children who read in this way do not drawl, as too 
many do who began in the old ways. It is really but 
an amplification of the word method, and gives better 
results, so far as expression is concerned. Then, too, 
It is a principle of pedagogy that the young child 
should study outlines at first, rather than details; so 
the first lessons in drawing, now, are not the fine lines 
of *'ye olden tyme" but bold and large strokes out- 
lining some comparatively large object, preferably 
something with which the child is already familiar. 
On the same principle, he is taught to observe the 
entire sentence, which at first is of course a short one, 
and to read it as a whole. 

TJie Group Method partakes of the character of both 
the sentence and the word methods; but it is, on the 
whole more satisfactory than either, as being more 
likely to develop good expression, and showing, inci- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 83 

dentally, the prominent words or phrases in the longer 
sentences, and so, of course, those that require special 
stress or emphasis. In the sentence: "The red maple 
leaf is waving", the child would be taught that there 
are two parts in this ''story," as most of such work is 
now called, in order to catch the ear and hold the atten- 
tion of the little ones ; and he would read it as though a 
comma had been interposed between "leaf" and "is." 
By this method I have seen children actually reading, 
and tolerably well, at the beginning of the second week 
of school, although they did not really know "their 
letters" but could tell some of them, and could select 
some of the common words which they had been read- 
ing, at sight, wherever found. 

TJie Ward MetJiod (or as it is called by its author, 
Edward G. Ward, City Superintendent of the Public 
Schools of Brooklyn, N.Y., ''The Rational Method'') 
is a combination of the luord, sentence, and phonetic 
methods. It purposes, during the first year and a half 
of the child's school life, to put him in possession of a 
complete key to the reading of English, so that if his 
schooling should then cease, his ability to read would 
then "grow with his growth, and strengthen with his 
strength." Phonograms are introduced, and marked, 
even in the primer. The method has been in success- 
ful use in Brooklyn for six or seven years, and is 
being adopted in other cities. 

TJie ''Pollard Method'' is named for its originator, 
and furnishes the child a large vocabulary of familiar 
words within a few weeks. I have not seen the work- 



84 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

ings of this method, but the publishers of this book 
will give you information, as they handle these readers. 

TJie Object MetJiod has good points, and may well be 
used in connection with the others. Any common 
thing which is likely to please the child, and with which 
he is somewhat familiar, is presented, and the words, 
phrases, and sentences are drawn from him, by means 
of judicious questions. The ''stories" which he com- 
poses are written and printed on the board ; and he is 
then taught, as in the word and sentence methods, how 
to read them. It will be observed that the child of to- 
day is taught writing (and drawing) from the start, not 
waiting until the third or fourth reader grade work is 
begun. He reads script with print, and as easily, from 
the first lesson. 

A judicious combination of all these methods, and 
variety from time to time, not only to hold the interest 
up to grade, but also to furnish the all around training 
which no one method gives, is best. Some ways will 
catch some children, from the start; while others will 
not learn until the teacher has exhausted the entire 
round of methods. No one child may be neglected, 
even if it takes some special work to help him possess 
himself of this key to all printed knowledge. Reading 
must be taught thoroughly, even if other things get 
slighted in consequence. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 85 

LITERATURE 

Reading being the key to all printed knowledge, and 
right reading a safeguard against wrong and tempta- 
tion, as well as an incentive to true nobility (that of 
character) and a stimulus to ambition, it becomes the 
teachers' duty to help train the taste and to foster a 
love for the good in literature, poetic, historic, scien- 
tific, narrative, informational of all kinds. The country 
teacher is too apt to think that without a large library 
this can not be done, and that there is no use in making 
the attempt. But a small beginning may result in 
something great for the child for whose benefit the plan 
was adopted; and it may be the one tiny seed that will 
bear fruit where mathematics and other studies failed 
to awake the dormant interest and powers of the 
pupil. 

Suppose that the teacher begins with the bookshelf or 
reading table (see, page 43) and has ''literature" at first 
as a merely voluntary class, that can be heard but once or 
twice a week, and that during the recess or rest periods. 
He may let the pupils first tell what has been of most 
interest in the work since their last report, and also ask 
questions concerning what they failed to understand. 
As interest increases, he may hear the recitation 
oftener, and combine it with others, as history, 
geography, etc. Poems of places may well go with 
either of these, as: "The Courtship of Miles Standish" 
with the part of United States history which pertains to 
the colonial times; "The Witch's Daughter" to the 



86 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

history of the Salem Witchcraft period ; and from these 
great interest in Longfellow and Whittier may be 
developed. Other poems by the same authors, that 
have a story element in them, can not fail to interest, if 
well read; and from the stories, the purity of the 
language, the lofty sentiments embodied, the masterly 
use of words, etc., may be taught, and great encourage- 
ment in the study of language, as language, given. 

One author may sometimes be compared with 
another for (i) style; (2) scope; (3) popularity, and 
other points. 

Authors of one time may be grouped, and those of 
one country. 

Living authors may be discussed, and the master- 
pieces of any studied. 

The new words may be hunted down in the dic- 
tionary, talked about, and used in original work by the 
pupils until each strange sentence has taken on a 
practical meaning, and the new words have become 
familiar. 

Scenes and scenery may be talked over, by the class 
in literature, and a synopsis of a poem, essay, or book, 
given, from time to time. 

All may study to give a review of a different book 
by the same author; a different book on the same 
subject by different authors; or all may unite in review- 
ing the same book, each taking a different part, or by 
each one doing "digest" work on the entire volume. 

If a place is mentioned in the geography lesson, and 
the teacher knows of some poem about that place, or a 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 87 

book, magazine, or newspaper, in which a good de- 
scription of it is given, he may call on the class in 
literature to help entertain the geography class. So 
with bits of biography, for the history, geography, or 
any of the classes with which his time is spent. 

The day is long enough to give a taste of literature 
to all; and by selecting only the choicest that is within 
the comprehension of the pupils, and leading up from 
that lowest point, the teacher has an unlimited power to 
open the literary avenues to the most backwoods dis- 
trict in the country. 

An entertainment may be given, once or twice in the 
term, in the evening, to which parents and outsiders 
may be invited. A special author may be discussed, 
one furnishing an essay which will sketch the life of the 
author; another one, one of his books, poems, or essays; 
and another may tell of some other writer. 

Or a variety may be given as : English Poets, 
English Essayists, American Humorists, American 
Novelists, American Juvenile Writers, etc. Selections 
may be given, from any or all of these ; and by calling 
on his singers, or someone from outside, the teacher 
may easily secure music enough to give variety, and thus 
a pleasant evening may be spent, and an interest de- 
veloped in the school, beyond what any ordinary rote 
work can furnish. 

It may do, in some instances, to call upon some out- 
sider; and even if it is someone who would not other- 
wise have any interest in the school, it may in some 
cases be all the better — to help out on the evening 



S8 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

program. Once one has been asked to do something 
for any school, there is a different feehng for that 
school, by that person, than he has ever had before. 
It is always well for the teacher to add as many helps 
as possible to his own forces, both for his own sake and 
for that of the school. 

A Literary Round Table may be held, and an 
admission fee be charged, unless the laws of the dis- 
trict forbid that; and the proceeds may be devoted to 
building up the reading table or the bookshelf. 

This ''Round Table" may consist of short extracts, 
of course famihar ones, to be given by the pupils, no 
one of whom is to know just what anyone else is to give, 
and no outsider to know. A small prize may be given 
to the one who first guesses the author. 

Or, quotations from one author may be given, and 
the audience may guess from what poem, essay, or 
book, it is taken. 

Or, an author may be described, some of his leading 
works mentioned, some of the important events in his 
life talked about, and the audience may be left to guess 
who was meant; but if no one guesses within a stipu- 
lated time, the contest must be declared closed. 

Or, questions like the following may be asked, and 
the prize given to the one who answers the greatest 
number correctly: 

Who lived at a country home called ''Sunnyside.?" 
(Irving.) What poet wrote the Psalm of Life.?" 
(Longfellow.) Who wrote ''Little Women.?" (Louisa 
May Alcott.) Who is called "The Quaker Poet.?" 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 89 

(Whittier.) Name one of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
books. What one helped precipitate the Civil War? 
(Uncle Tom's Cabin.) Who wrote ''The Biglow Papers ? " 
(James Russell Lowell.) 

"An Evening with Whittier" or with Longfellow, or 
Dickens, or anyone that can be made generally mter- 
esting, will prove attractive as often as once a month; 
and the district may have an entire season's study of one 
person, or it may be made comprehensive rather than 
thorough, by changing once a month. I had a class 
that studied Dickens for a year, giving an open meetmg 
once a month that called out nearly everyone in the 

district but in many places it would take a long time 

to educate up to that point. It can be done, however 

but I do not advise Dickens to begin with, nor 

Emerson, as a rule. The teacher must be guided by 
the point at which he finds literary taste and cultiva- 
tion, and teach from that, always aiming high at the 
end, but not starting so high as to be beyond the heads 
of his patrons. A growth may be rapidly made, very 
often; for many of the farming community have plenty 
of leisure in the winter months, and not so much 
variety that they will not welcome the advent of some- 
thing new or interesting. Many, too, will be glad to 
add to the general culture that was for any reason 
denied them in youth, if it comes in this way ; and the 
teacher will not fail to add to his usefulness, as well as 
to his list of friends — and even this is a good thing 
to reach. No one can have too many, and a teacher 
needs all the friends that honorable means will procure. 



90 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Scrap books, in illustration of the people, places, or 
events mentioned in the literary work, will be found in- 
valuable. These may be passed around, at the evening 
entertainment, during the "intermission, and will be 
duly commented upon; and it will be a good oppor- 
tunity to impress the idea upon the audience that the 
school can utilize old papers, magazines and pictures, in 
this and other ways. Many an old garret will be 
robbed for the school that is wide awake to oppor- 
tunities like this; and the teacher who is also up to 
date need never fear that his certificate will be an- 
nulled for incompetency or his job given over to 
another. 

SPELLING AND DEFINING 

The orthography of the English language is difficult. 
The majority of the words are not phonetic, and the 
rules for spelling have too many exceptions to be of 
much utility. 

We learn to spell both by the eye and by the ear. 
Both written and oral spelling exercises should be em- 
ployed. We hear a word spelled and remember the 
order of the letters; or we con the words, repeating the 
letters, and thus fix their order in our minds. Thus we 
learn by the ear. We see a word written or printed, 
observe the order and position of the letters as we 
would the objects in a picture, and they become fixed 
in our memory; and thus we learn by the eye. Written 
spelling has the advantage of giving employment to 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 9 I 

pupils who would otherwise, perhaps, be in mischief. 
It also affords training to the hand, and is an aid in 
penmanship. 

In addition to the spelling exercises in connection 
with the reading lessons, daily drills in spelling, defining, 
capitalization, punctuation and abbreviations should be 
given, the entire school, from the second reader up, 
participating. 

I have found it best to classifiy the school into two 
general classes, a primary and an advanced. Each of 
these classes may be divided into two sections, that the 
exercises may be graded to their capacities. The dif- 
ferent sections may be assigned different parts of the 
same lesson ; but it can be so managed that there need 
be but one recitation for each class. Not less than 
fifteen minutes should be devoted to each recitation. 

For an advanced class I give a lesson something as 
follows: Ten or more words are selected and written 
upon the blackboard in the morning, in as neat and 
plain a manner as possible, the letters made according 
to the Spencerian System. I can best illustrate this by 
giving a model lesson : 

1. curriculum 

2. Joseph Ray, M. D. 

3. daguerreotype 

4. autumnal 

5. William H. McGuffey, LL. D. 

6. stationary 

7. stationery 

8. Springfield, 111. 



92 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

9. Honorable E. S. Sampson, M. C. 
10, Marion County Democrat. 

It must be explained to the pupils that words in 
these lessons are to be written just as they would appear 
in the middle of a sentence. I have given above 
rather more words which should be capitalized, and 
more abbreviations than I would in an ordinary lesson. 
Perhaps one or two such examples would be sufficient 
in each lesson. It will be seen by the above that capi- 
talization, punctuation and abbreviations may be taught 
in a natural manner. 

This lesson may remain upon the board until within 
an hour of the time of recitation, which should be near 
the close of the day. During this time the class should 
be required to copy it upon slates one or more times. 
The most backward spellers, and those inclined to be 
idle, may be required to copy it oftener than the good 
spellers or those who are diligent. One or more words 
may be marked and arranged as a lesson in defining, 
the pupil to find the meaning in the dictionary. The 
modes of conducting the recitation are various. The 
words may be erased or, what is better, covered with a 
shawl, map or newspaper, before the hour of recitation. 
The teacher, having reserved a slate containing a copy 
of the lesson, requires the lessons to be erased from 
all other slates. He then pronounces the words and 
the pupils write them on their slates. Slates may be 
exchanged and the pupils criticise each other's work; 
or each one may retain his own slate and mark the mis- 
spelled words as the teacher gives the correct spelling. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 93 

The words may then be spelled orally, the slates being 
turned down on the desks. All words missed should be 
written again correctly by the pupils. Words missed by 
the majority of the class should be noted by the teacher 
and used for future lessons. The covering may be 
removed from the lesson on the board, and the pupils 
will correct their slates from that. 

As an occasional exercise, say once a week, the 
class may be provided with pens, ink, and slips of paper 
on which to write their lessons. The lessons being dated 
and signed by the pupil, both sides may be used, and 
they may be kept as a record of the pupil's progress 
in spelling and penmanship. There are blank books 
provided for this purpose which are both cheap and 
convenient. 

These written spelling lessons may be varied in many 
ways. Occasionally, sentences should be given. The 
dictation exercises given in spelling books are very con- 
venient. The lessons need not always be written. Oral 
spelling should not be neglected. As spelling books 
are common in most country schools the teacher may 
make use of them in various ways; but he should avoid 
a routine plan of teaching, and study new methods of 
conducting spelling drills. There is nothing like variety 
here to keep up an interest. The old-fashioned custom 
of having a spelling match every Friday is not a bad 
one. The ingenious teacher of today will, however, find 
many ways of varying the old plan. 

A good method in oral spelling is to have the class 
numbered and their numbers written upon the black- 



94 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

board. The teacher then, with book in one hand and 
pointer in the other, pronounces a word and points to 
a certain number. The pupil corresponding to that 
number spells the word. If he misses, a mark is made 
under his number and the word passed to another. By 
passing rapidly from one number to another promis- 
cuously, the pupils are compelled to pay close attention. 
The number of marks, then, will show the number of 
words missed by each pupil. Another plan is to have 
each one of the class have slate and pencil in hand, and 
whenever a pupil misses let him write the word on the 
slate. Occasionally, words may be incorrectly written 
on the board, and the pupils be required to write the 
spelling correctly on slates. 

In a written lesson, as given above, the teacher may 
define the words as he pronounces them, sometimes by 
giving the definition as in the dictionary, or by giving 
a sentence containing the word, and make such remarks 
about the origin, etc., of words or terms as he may 
think proper. Much interesting information may be 
conveyed in this manner, which will not be lost on 
many of the pupils. He should avoid, however, con- 
suming much time in this manner. (See p. 6'j^ 

Primary classes may receive lessons similar to the 
above, but limited to their capacities. Many will not 
be able to write with sufficient rapidity to do it from 
dictation; but lessons may be placed on the board oc- 
casionally, copied by the class, and then recited orally. 
Lessons from the spelling-book may be assigned and 
copied on slates as a preparation and recited orally. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 95 

Occasionally a class may be required to form its own 
lesson in the following manner: Tell each to write 
ten names of objects that he saw on the road to 
school, or objects in the schoolroom, or things used in 
the kitchen, shop, etc. The slates are then collected 
and the words pronounced by the teacher. No two 
pupils will have exactly the same list of words. Per- 
haps out of the whole number there will be some words 
which the majority of the class will miss. In this case, 
a list should be made of such words, to be used in 
future recitations. Easy abbreviations and contractions, 
such as Dr., Mr., cant, coiildnt, may be given to 
primary pupils. It is best to exhibit them in sentences 
showing their use and meaning. The instruction in 
regard to use of capitals, punctuation, etc., given in 
reading classes, should be repeated in spelling classes. 
When a class is divided into sections, the lesson may 
be written all together, and words designed for the 
advanced section designated by a mark, such as a line 
drawn under them or by inclosing them in parentheses. 
I would impress upon the teacher the following 
considerations: 

1. Teach the words first which the pupil will be 
likely to use in writing a familiar letter or in reading 
ordinary composition. 

2. Constant reviews are necessary to fix certain hard 
words in the memory; therefore, all words which are 
frequently misspelled should be made the subjects of 
future lessons, and words which are very easy should 
not occupy the time of the pupils. 



96 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

3. Too many of the words found in spelling-books 
are to be found nowhere else outside of medical, law or 
other technical works; and pupils should not be required 
to study them until necessity for their use demands it.* 
A common newspaper is one of the best places from 
which to select words for spelling lessons. 

4. In pronouncing words to be spelled the teacher 
should do so distinctly and properly, as he would if he 
were reading a composition containing them. He should 
never pronounce the word wrong to assist the pupil 
in spelling it. In oral spelling, the pupils should be 
required to pronounce the word before spelling it; and 
in spelling to pronounce each syllable as he spells it. 

5. In assigning a lesson, attention should be called 
to one or more of the difficult words, telling the pupils 
that such words they will very likely miss — unless they 
study them particularly. I have pursued this plan 
with somewhat surprising results. If I found a very 
hard word I remarked, on assigning the lesson, that I 
did not think anyone would be able to spell that word 
to-morrow. I could see among several pupils a look of 
incredulity, as much as to say: "I am not going to miss 
it," and the consequence was that the particular word 
was generally spelled by even the dullest in the class. 

6. It will not be amiss to teach something of spelling 
along with other branches. New words occurring in 
arithmetic, grammar and history may well be so learned 
by the pupils. 

* This rule will tend to narrow the pupils' vocabulary. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 97 

7. It may have been noticed by many teachers that 
those who spell well orally do not always spell correctly 
when writing. I have seen pupils who could spell any 
word in the spelling-book if pronounced to them ; yet if 
they were to write a letter to a friend they would mis- 
spell ten per cent, of the words. This is owing, in a 
great measure, to carelessness. The hand being occu- 
pied in forming the letters, and the mind in composing, 
one is too apt to neglect the spelling of the words. 
This fault will be found more especially with those who 
have never been accustomed to writing spelling. Many 
persons habitually misspell, in writing, certain very 
easy words. This is done by mere ''slips of the pen," 
and is a result of want of attention. The teacher should 
take particular care to impress upon his pupils the 
importance of close attention to this matter. It is a 
good exercise to occasionally dictate a long sentence 
composed of easy words, and have the class write it as 
rapidly as possible and then correct the errors, not only 
in spelling, but in punctuation and capitalization. A 
short poem or hymn maybe committed to memory ; or one 
may be chosen which is already familiar to the pupils, 
as "Mary's Lamb," ''The Little Star," etc., and the 
pupils be required to copy it from memory and after- 
wards correct their mistakes from the book. The 
Lord's Prayer, passages from the Bible, or any short 
piece of composition which the pupil is able to write 
from memory, or can easily commit, may be used in this 
way. Each pupil may have a different piece, and they 
may be allowed to exchange slates and critici5:e each 



98 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Other's work. The teacher may look over this work 
when corrected, and point out such errors as may still 
be found. Beautiful lines of poetry, or short, elegant 
extracts or quotations, may be written on the board and 
committed to memory, and in a day or two afterwards 
reproduced by the pupils on their slates. Such exer- 
cise may be given, say once in two weeks, or monthly. 

8. Frequent exercises should be given in addressing 
letters. The teacher may draw the outline of an envel- 
ope on the board and write an address in the proper 
place, showing where to begin the name, post-office, 
county and state, and where to place the stamp, and 
require pupils to draw and address a similar one on 
their slates, allowing each one to use the name and 
address of one of his friends. 

9. Difficult words may be sometimes spelled in con- 
cert by the class after the teacher, or written in promi- 
nent characters on the blackboard and allowed to 
remain several days. 

10. The teacher may call attention to some of the 
most important rules for spelling and syllabication. 
Very few pupils will, however, learn to spell by rules. 
Attention should be called frequently to the diacritical 
marks used in dictionaries and spelling-books, and drills 
given, in spelling by sound. Attention to words com- 
monly mispronounced and misspelled, should also be 
given, and words having more than one authorized 
pronunciation or spelling. The dictionary should be in 
every schoolroom, one copy at least, and frequently 
referred to by both teacher and pupil. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 99 

II. Says Wickersham: ''Words are the winged mes- 
sengers that convey information from one mind and 
heart to another. All knowledge must be labeled 
with words, or it can find no place in the cabinet of 
memory." I need not add that it is of exceeding im- 
portance that pupils understand the meaning of words 
which they may find in their daily reading or hear in 
daily conversation. Many words are learned by a sort 
of unconscious intuition. Almost daily children pick 
up and use new words which they hear in conversation 
or find in their reading. They learn the meaning by 
the connection. The proper place, then, for the main 
study of words is in a reading class; but as it will not 
do to crowd too many things on the pupil's attention at 
one time, the subject may also profitably occupy some 
attention of a spelling class. In fact, attention to the 
meaning of words should be given in every recitation, 
on whatever subject. 

The teacher, in defining words for his pupils, should, 
whenever possible, make the meaning plain by showing 
the object, action or quality which the words represent. 
For example, the word calyx may be explained, by show- 
ing that part of a flower; the word diameter by drawing 
a circle with a line drawn through the center, also by 
exhibiting a block, box or ball and explaining that it 
means the distance through from one side or end to the 
other, the word compress, by squeezing a handkerchief, 
a rubber ball, or a sponge in the hand; the words trans- 
parent and opaque, by pointing to the planes of glass in 
the window and to the walls of the house. 



lOO BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

The definitions sometimes given in the dictionary 
and in reading books are as difficult of comprehension 
as the words themselves. In this case the teacher 
should give sentences which make clear the meaning. 

A slight knowledge of Latin and Greek will aid much 
in defining words, although it is not to be expected 
that pupils in a country school can always make use of 
this knowledge. But it will be of great value to the 
teacher in studying words. He can, however, teach 
the meaning of a few prefixes and suffixes, and show 
how they help make words, as ad, ex, tJi, sub, ion, con, 
de, re, etc., and their use in such words as aspect, in- 
spect, expect, suspect, respect, conspectJis, suspicion, etc. 

12. It will not be out of place here to mention that 
a small printing press is a valuable aid to good spelling 
and punctuation. Such presses, with outfits, can be 
had now for the small sum of five dollars. The teacher 
may have such a press and permit pupils to use it. 
He may so interest boys in the art that their parents 
will be constrained to procure a press for them. The 
teacher will find a printing press of value to him for 
many purposes not necessary to mention here. 

The use of typewriters in the school room is gaining 
in favor, and has been found of value in stimulating 
ambition in the indifferent, arousing dormant powers in 
the slow or dull and furnishing practical ''busy work" 
for all. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS lOI 

PENMANSHIP 

Some of the pedagogical authorities are exclaiming 
against the use of slates in school work, as being un- 
pedagogical and not altogether hygienic. It is true 
that after leavmg school the child will rarely, if ever, 
need to use the same sort of surface for his written 
work that the slate gives; but while there, I see no 
harm in the moderate use of both slate and blackboard, 
and believe that those who cry out against the one on 
the first ground, should drop the blackboard work from 
the child's curriculum on the same principle. Both 
seem desirable to me. 

As to the other claim, that the use of slates increases 
the spread of disease, I think that while that may be 
true in some large cities, where books and material are 
furnished in bulk to the schools, and no care taken of 
them by anyone in particular, and one child may have 
to-day what another will have to-morrow, none of these 
reasons prevail in most country districts, where each 
family ''finds" its own school apparatus and books. 
But even in cities, if the slates are properly cared for, 
the same child using the same slate, and each having a 
small vial of water, and a sponge or cloth for cleansing 
the slate after using, there is little if any danger of con- 
tamination from microbes. All of which is preUminary 
to first lessons in penmanship. 

During the first few days of the child's school life, 
while he is becoming way-wise, the teacher will need to 
provide some means of keeping him busy while higher 



I02 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

grades are reciting, and penmanship will be one of the 
best means. The teacher should let him have his slate 
and pencil, and copy: i. From the blackboard, words 
and letters, that have already been given in the read- 
ing and spelling lesson. 2. From the word and letter 
boxes, selecting for himself, part of the time, and at 
dictation the rest of the time. 3. From the reading 
chart, if there is one in the school. 4. From his 
primer. Once a day, oftener if the teacher has time, 
he may give a writing lesson, and let other things then 
be subordinate to that. He should unify, where possi- 
ble, but always keep the main thought uppermost. 
The first lesson may be of some common word, which 
may be written on the board by the teacher. These 
words should be written in the child's writing book, 
both because that is how he will write most of his work 
later in life, and because his teacher must watch his 
progress. 

Nearly all country schools should be divided into 
about three writing classes, following the grades or 
divisions as previously laid out. The older ones may 
write from copy books, if the teacher has not time for 
blackboard teaching for all; but the latter is preferable. 
I have managed by giving the same lesson for all at 
first, as for instance, the word **man," that all might 
have something to do from the start. As soon as mod> 
erately sure that the least little ones were mastering 
that, and could go on alone for a few moments, I added 
for the rest, say, ''can run, but he cannot fly." Then 
I gave what personal help was needed in the second 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS IO3 

grade, that and the older ones all writing the new copy 
while I helped whoever in the second grade required it. 
That done, I wrote a new copy for the third grade, be- 
ginning the line with a capital letter which I analyzed 
in detail. For this class I called attention to the finer 
points in writing, and drilled on : i . Legibility. 2. Speed. 
3. Proportion. 

The main lesson done, I put a new copy on the 
board, perhaps a quotation, a line from some favorite 
poem, or a list of geographical names, or of distin- 
guished people, days of the week, names of the months, 
or something that promised help in some other line of 
thought as well as spelling. Attention could then be 
given to the little ones again, and perhaps to the second 
grade, while the older ones could now go on alone, ask- 
ing for individual help when necessary. In the higher 
grades, and even in the second, I have taught the pupils 
to analyze and criticise their own work, so as to do it 
independently, and with thought. 

The writing hour may come late in the forenoon, but 
never immediately after violent exercise. A study 
period is a good thing to precede it. That quiets the 
tired muscles, and puts the entire being into a good 
condition. 

About once a month the teacher should have each 
one write his name, age, and address, in his writing 
book, that it may constitute a regular record of prog- 
ress — and he must see that each one makes progress. 
He may ask anyone to tell of his special difficulty 
(nearly all are "weak" on the formation of some letter, 



I04 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

and it is generally capital E and K) and then persuade 
him to put extra time and effort on that. 

Once in a while it is well to let the little folks take 
the second grade lesson with those of that grade, to 
spur both parties to the combination; and in the same 
way the second may be combined with the third, occa- 
sionally. It will keep all up to a better standard than 
if the separation is settled and arbitrary; and it is not 
unusual to find that some in each of the lower grades 
will outdo those in the next higher, while if confined to 
the lesson designed mainly for their own class, they 
would not even reach the top line of that. 

I give easy words and sentences from the start, and 
analyze one letter for each lesson, in the smallest class, 
two or more for the next, and as many as possible in 
the higher one, until all have been analyzed. I also 
teach the pupils to do this for themselves. 

I occasionally call for a comparison of letters, and for 
proportions of letters or parts of them; for, in the 
main, writing is but a detailed and accurate system of 
observation put into practice. "How high are the 
capital letters in proportion to the small letters m^ n, o, 
a, i, ?/, V, w, X, c, etc.V ''Name the loop letters." 
''Those having a right curve." "A left curve." "A 
capital stem." "A small stem." A little help in this 
line will open the world of penmanship as no dead fol- 
lowing of copy ever can. 

"Vertical or Spencerian?" I don't know. I learned 
and always taught the latter, but without copy books, 
other than those made by cutting foolscap crosswise 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I05 

and sewing the sheets together. But the vertical has 
many advantages : i . It is easily learned — but so is 
any penmanship in the hands of a competent teacher. 
2. It is legible — and so is the Spencerian, when well 
taught. 3. It occupies but little space. On the other 
hand, there are some points that militate against its 
prevalence: i. It is a slow method. I have yet to see 
the first rapid writer of the vertical system, 2. It 
takes away more of the individuality in the writing. 
Individuality is not, perhaps, of commercial value; but 
a child may be taught principles, and proportions, then 
he may be shown how to develop a handwriting that 
shall express something of himself in its curves, loops, 
ovals and straight lines. Between these two comes a 
"medium" method, by the American Book Company, 
New York, which embodies the best points of the Spen- 
cerian and vertical systems. 

When a copy book has been written full, I have had 
the children use them for ''exercise" books, turning 
them crosswise to write on. The exercises are to be 
given at the beginning of the writing hour, and consist 
of graded lessons, to be given to the entire school. My 
first lesson was one of straight lines, extending across 
the slate or paper pad, and made on (counted) time, 
I, 2, 3, 4, meaning that four lines, so: 



were made as I counted, at first, and as the children did 



io6 



BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



later, and that set the pace, so that they would know 
about how many strokes they would make or be ex- 
pected to in a given time. This prevented "dawdling" 
to a certain extent, spurring the slow motioned children. 
One lesson on straight lines, one day, would be fol- 
lowed the next day by the same thing, connected at the 
ends, making the audible count: "i and, 2 and, 3 and, 
4 and," the ''and" coming on the ''return" below, so: 



y^gt>t 



left 



d 



Z> 



The next lesson would be even a little more compli- 
cated, perhaps, putting one of the "principles" into the 
middle of the upper and each alternate line, so: 



-/^^JA^ ,, Ml ----'' 



slide 




IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



107 



This, again, would be followed by putting a simple 
letter in the same place, perhaps beginning with u or 0, 
followed by any of the short letters, so : 



sTlde 




As proficiency was gained, a word was put in, as : 




These exercises never occupied more than from three 
to six minutes, of the twenty minutes to a half hour 
which I set apart for a technical lesson and practice in 
penmanship, daily. They gave a good shoulder and 
whole arm movement, relaxed the muscles, and helped 



io8 



BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



some of the work-stiffened fingers get in place and trim 
for good book work. And I tried to keep up enough 
variety of them to make them interesting, as well as im- 
proving. Sometimes I would put in a row of difficult 
letters, to be properly proportioned, spaced, etc., so: 




Then I would give them a more difficult word for 
special oval movement practice, as : 




The penmanship of all my pupils improved wonder- 
fully as a result of this course of training. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS IO9 

The following exercises are especially recommended 
for practice. 




These exercises should be written without lifting the 
pen from the paper. 




Ink may be made, and by the pint, at a low price, by 
use of the ten-cent packages of dye stuffs. Directions 



IIO BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

are given with each package; and I made all my own, 
getting more and of a much better quality, for that 
money, than most of the prepared inks that are found 
in stationery and department stores. Various colors can 
be so made, red, green, blue, purple, and black ; but in 
the ordinary school work of writing, only the black 
was allowed, as it is the kind that is used in business, 
and has a more business-like look. For the brush 
work, of which later, and for certain parts of book- 
keeping, etc., the colored inks are both pretty and 
convenient. 

ARITHMETIC 

The idea of number is developed early in life. The 
study of arithmetic may be begun quite early, but should 
not be pushed too rapidly. It is not the most important 
branch taught in our schools. Many teachers devote 
too much time to this branch, to the neglect of more im- 
p>ortant studies. It is true a knowledge of arithmetic is 
indispensable in all ordinary operations of life; but the 
knowledge necessary for the practical work of an aver- 
age life is soon and easily acquired, and all beyond this 
is of comparatively slight importance compared with 
many other branches. 

The first thing a child learns about arithmetic is to 
count. This he will learn to some extent with little or 
no instruction. Exercises in counting, and practice in 
forming the nine digits may be given in connection with 
reading. (See p. 63.) 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I I I 

The teacher, in organizing a country school, will find 
it necessary to start a class in the first principles of arith- 
metic. He should begin with addition, it being supposed 
the pupils are able to count to one hundred. Objects 
should be used at first, such as pieces of chalk, sticks, 
grains of corn, beans, books, marks on the blackboard, 
balls on a frame, or the fingers. He must commence 
with easy examples, and advance gradually to more diffi- 
cult ones. Objects should be discarded as soon as the 
pupil acquires the idea of addition and can add with some 
degree of readiness. Examples, consisting of single 
columns of figures, may be placed on the board and the 
pupils required to add them on their slates as a prepara- 
tion for the lesson. These examples should consist at 
first of but two or three numbers, using the smaller 
digits and advancing to more numbers and larger digits 
until the pupils are able to add a column of a dozen 
or more figures, using all the digits from one to nine. 
In this way they will soon learn the addition table by 
using it. Oral and written exercises should be given 
in about equal proportions. Pupils will soon learn by 
observation to write numbers above nine, so that they 
can write the answers to the examples given, if they do 
not go above hundreds. 

The next step is to teach the first principles of nota- 
tion and numeration. The teacher must show that the 
value of a digit depends upon the place it occupies. He 
will explain the use of the cipher and teach the places 
up to thousands; and he must drill until the pupils can 
name the first four places in any order as he points to 



112 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

them. He may exercise the class in writing numbers, 
from one to thousands. Next he will teach the process 
of carrying, and drill in adding more than one column 
of figures, until the class is able to add any sum the 
numbers of which are less than thousands. 

Subtraction should be next taught, using objects at 
first until the idea is gained; then exercises in sub- 
tracting in one column; then in two or more columns 
where the upper digit is always the largest; then the 
process of borrowing. Examples should be given until 
the pupils are able to subtract thousands. Promiscuous 
examples in addition and subtraction may then be given 
and the method of proving subtraction explained. 

Further instruction and exercises in notation and 
numeration may come next, but haste is to be made slow- 
ly. There is no end to the examples that may be given 
to the class as practice in what has already given it in- 
struction. If the teacher has not books containing ex- 
amples, he may write them on the board where they 
can be seen by the whole class. Children need the 
exercises for practice; and the employment they give 
will keep pupils from mischief. 

The next step will be to learn the multiplication 
table. It is best learned by using it. The teacher will, 
of course, preface the study of the table by an explana- 
tion of the principle of multiplication. He may illus- 
trate by objects or by making marks on the board 
showing that it is a short method of addition, where the 
numbers to be added are alike. Examples should be 
given where the multiplier and the multiplicand are 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS II3 

single digits, and next where the multiphcand is a large 
number, explaining the process of carrying as in ad- 
dition, and next where both factors consist of several 
digits. Practice multiplying numbers until the table is 
learned, giving occasional review exercises in addition 
and subtraction. Oral drills on the tables should be 
given daily. Before advancing farther, see that the 
pupils can add, subtract and multiply with facility. 

Division is next in order, and with some pupils it will 
take a great deal of practice to make them perfect. 
Drill must be given as in the other rules, and for variety 
a review of what has been taught. Examples combin- 
ing the four fundamental rules may be given, and oral 
exercises and drills in notation and numeration. The 
use of the signs +, — , x> ^> => is to be taught. Ad- 
dition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and notation 
and numeration are called the fundamental rules, be- 
cause all operations of arithmetic are founded on them. 
The teacher should see that his pupils are thoroughly 
drilled in them before advancing further. Our text 
books do not all give a sufficient number of examples. 
Teachers should not tire the pupils by requiring them 
to work the same examples over again, but give them 
new ones illustrating the same principles. This obser- 
vation will hold good all the way through the book. I 
have seen pupils who had ''worked," as they said, half 
way through the text book, yet could not write nor read 
large numbers nor solve examples in long division. 

I can see no propriety in putting puzzling examples 
embracing the fundamental rules immediately after 



114 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

division. Examples should be given embracing these 
rules; but they should be plain and simple, intended to 
give exercises in the processes of adding, subtracting, 
multiplying and dividing, and not to test the child's skill 
in reasoning. He is not yet prepared to reason to such 
an extent. Of what use can an example like the follow- 
ing be to a child who has just learned the four funda- 
mental processes.-* 

A cistern of 360 gals, has 2 pipes, one will fill it in 
1 5 hours, the other empty it in 20 hours. If both pipes 
are left open, how many hours will the cistern be in 
filling.? 

The teacher must use his own judgment about such 
matters." He can give examples of his own which the 
pupils can solve, and which will give exercise in the 
processes they have learned ; and such examples as the 
above should be omitted until the pupil has acquired the 
skill to solve them himself. 

Processes should be taught before rules; or rather the 
rules should be developed from the processes. The in- 
ductive method is the best in teaching arithmetic. 
Thus far the pupil has only learned processes ; but they 
are those that they must use all through life, and are of 
more importance practically than the more abstract 
principles underlying them. When the pupil has 
reached a more mature age and greater intellectual de- 
velopment, the more abstract parts may be taken up. 

Examples somewhat like the following may be given 
as exercises in the fundamental rules : 

Write 495. Annex a cipher. This multiplies it by 10. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS II5 

From this product let 495 be subtracted as many times 
as possible. The operation will appear thus : 

4950 
495 



4455 
495 

3960 

495 

3465 

495 
2970 

495 

2475 
495 

1980 
495 

H85 
495 

990 
495 

495 
495 

000 
It will be seen that after ten subtractions the 
remainder is naught. This proves that division is but 
''a short method of making many subtractions of the 
same number." Any number other than ten may be 
used as the multiplier; and it will be found that to make 
the final remainder naught, there must be as many sub- 
tractions as there are units in the multiplier. 



Il6 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

The operation may be reversed; by starting with 
naught and adding 495 ten times successively the num- 
ber 4950 will be reached, proving that multiplication is 
a short method of adding equal numbers. By giving 
such examples as the above, much exercise can be 
given the pupil, with but little work on the part of the 
teacher. The pupils make their own examples. Exer- 
cise in proving subtraction, multiplication and division 
should be given, and some of the more important con- 
tractions taught. 

Having had sufficient drill in handling simple inte- 
gral numbers in their fundamental relations, the pupil 
is now ready to commence with 

COMPOUND OR DENOMINATE NUMBERS 

United States Money, though really a form of deci- 
mals, is placed under this head by some authors; and 
as it is simple and affords much exercise in the funda- 
mental rules, and involving only one new idea, that of 
the separatrix, it is best taken up here. Particular 
attention should be paid to the fact that the separatrix 
is used to separate dollars and cents; that it is always 
placed after dollars and before cents, and should never 
in any case be omitted. Pupils need frequent remind- 
ing of this fact; and the teacher should see that the 
habit of attention to this matter is formed while very 
young. He must explain to them that if this Httle 
matter is not attended to, serious trouble will arise in 
after operations in arithmetic. I have seen pupils 
working almost through the book who would make 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS II7 

blunders of this kind constantly, and get examples so 
confused that they could not tell what they were doing, 
and all because they never had been taught the impor- 
tance of the separatrix. The teacher should explain that, 
in United States money, ten units of one denomination 
make one of the next higher, and that consequently they 
can be handled the same as simple numbers, the only 
difference being that dollars and cents are always to be 
separated by the point. The fact that cents always oc- 
cupy two places should also be impressed on the mind, 
explaining that accounts are kept in dollars, cents and 
mills; and that dimes and cents are counted together as 
cents, and therefore when the number of cents is less 
than ten there are no dimes, and a cipher must be 
placed next to the separatrix in the place of dimes. The 
teacher should show that a mill is the tenth part of a 
cent or the one thousandth part of a dollar, and is not 
coined, being too small, but is of importance in calculat- 
ing large amounts. Pupils will understand this better 
when they have studied decimals. 

Numerous examples in adding, subtracting, multiply- 
ing and dividing United States money should be given, 
many more than are given in the text books. Examples 
of merchants' bills are given in most books, but the 
teacher should add many more, as they are of great 
practical value. In giving a merchant's bill, the name 
of some merchant in the neighborhood whom the pupils 
know may be used, and always the current price of 
items. Particular attention should be paid to the neat- 
ness of a bill, use of abbreviations, capital letters, and the 



ii8 



BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 



punctuation. Pupils may be asked to copy the examples 
from the board as written by the teacher. An example 
of this kind will appear something like the following : 



BussEY, Iowa, July i6, 1899. 



JAS. 



H. SIMMS. 

Bought of Theo. West 
1 1 lbs. Coffee @ $ .25 . 



17 lbs. Sugar " 


.08 


2 Boxes Matches " 


.10 


3 Pair Shoes " 


2.40 


12 Yds. Print " 


.07 


23 Yds. Muslin <' 


.12 


3 Spools Thread " 


.05 


2 Doz. Buttons " 


•03 


Rec'd Payment. 





$ 2.7s 
1.36 

.20 
7.20 

.84 

2.76 

-15 
.06 

115-32 

Theo. West. 



The more apt pupils may be requested to make out 
and write bills of their own on their slates. This will, 
however, be a good exercise for review after the pupil 
has passed through compound numbers. 

Reduction of compound numbers may now be 
taught. The tables should be learned by using them. 
If numerous examples are given and sufficient drill be 
had at recitation upon each table, they will soon be 
learned without the necessity of telling pupils they must 
commit the tables to memory. The teacher will see 
that examples are written neatly and all denominations 
expressed by their proper abbreviations, attention being 
paid to pronunciation. He will illustrate, by familiar 
objects, the different weights and measures in common 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS II9 

use; and he will not neglect the oral drill on each table. 
He should give practical examples, such as involve 
dimensions of the school room, tables, desks, school- 
yard, fences, etc. 

It is a good exercise to require pupils to copy the 
tables from the books, on their slates. Cloth measure 
and ale and beer measure not being now in use, should 
be omitted if found in the text book, and circular 
measure and English money deferred until the pupil 
has made greater advancement. Reviews, by numerous 
promiscuous examples for practice, may be had, the 
teacher giving frequent drills on the tables. 

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of 
compound numbers are next. The teacher explains 
that numbers of the same denomination only, can be 
added or subtracted; shows that in simple numbers ten 
units of one denomination make one of the next higher, 
but that in compound numbers some other number 
than ten may be used; explains the process of bor- 
rowing; gives practical examples in subtraction; lets 
the pupil find difference between dates, and requires 
each one to find his own exact age in this way. Longi- 
tude and time should be omitted until the pupil is more 
advanced. 

Compound numbers must be reviewed until pupils 
understand what has been taught. Teacher should not 
turn the class back in the book. This is always dis- 
couraging; but he may give a number of review lessons, 
taking up those parts in which he finds the class to be 
the most deficient. This rule will hold good always. 



I20 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Teachers should never turn a pupil back, but advance 
slowly, giving plenty of exercises, and review frequently 
until all is thoroughly understood. 

The pupil is now ready to investigate some of the 
properties of numbers, generally considered under the 
head of factoring. 

A great deal of preliminary drill is here necessary to 
get pupils to comprehend the definitions. It is non- 
sense to require them to commit to memory definitions 
and rules the meaning of which they can not com- 
prehend. Pupils always expect their lessons in arith- 
metic to be mostly examples, and they will take little 
interest in studying definitions. The teacher may give 
numerous examples first and develop the definitions from 
them. He should impress on the minds the idea of a 
factor, a multiple and a prime number. He will teach 
the process of finding the least common multiple and 
greatest common divisor, leaving the demonstrations 
until a future period, explaining that though the pupils 
may see no importance in these processes at present, 
they will as they advance in the book. 

Cancellation may next be taught, after which the 
pupil may commence Fractions. 

The idea of a fraction may be illustrated by taking 
some object, as an apple, a stick or a piece of paper 
and dividing it into equal parts. The teacher should 
then show how a fraction is written, and explain the 
terms numerator (numberer) and denominator (namer). 
Numerous examples should be given in writing and 
reading fractions, and thorough drill, until the class has 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 12 1 

the idea of a fraction and understands the terms, 
numerator and denominator. 

The process of reduction may follow, remembering 
to make haste slowly, giving numerous examples and 
frequent reviews. 

Fractional compound numbers may next be studied. 
Examples in United States money and merchants' bills 
involving fractions should be given. Decimal fractions 
may follow. Simple numbers should be reviewed, 
showing how they increase and decrease in a tenfold 
ratio. The importance of the decimal point must be 
shown. The teacher compares United States money with 
decimals, showing the advantages of the decimal system. 

Percentage should be studied before ratio and pro- 
portion. Impress particularly the fact that per cent. 
means so many hundredths, without regard to dollars 
and cents. More than half the pupils I have had under 
my care, who have gone through the book, had the idea 
that per cent, had reference particularly to dollars and 
cents. This may seem strange to a good teacher, 
but it is a fact. I may have happened to follow poor 
teachers, which would account for it. Many examples 
such as the following should be given : 

A man had sixty-four hogs. Twenty-five per cent. 
of them died. How many were left.'^ 

In studying interest, pupils should have exercise in 
writing promissory notes and computing the interest on 
them. 

Explain insurance, stocks, brokerage, commission, 
discount,' present worth, taxes, customs and duties, 



122 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

bonds, coupons, etc., by familiar illustrations; and make 
them plainer than text books usually do. 

Such subjects as alligation, exchange, duodecimals, 
arithmetical and geometrical progression should be 
omitted until the pupil has had thorough drill on the 
more important parts of arithmetic. 

The subject of mensuration, being of practical value 
to all classes, should receive considerable attention. 
Pupils may measure the school-room and find its ca- 
pacity in cubic feet, bushels, gallons, etc. Measuring 
fields, corn-cribs, granaries, wagon-boxes, timber, etc., 
is of practical value to farmers' boys; and these the 
country teacher has mainly under his care. 

TJie Griibe MetJiod is a system of number develop- 
ment that is particularly adapted to the capacity of 
young children. It proceeds by gradual and easy steps 
of progression from the concrete or knowledge which is 
obtained through the senses, to the abstract or that 
which is gained by reasoning. 

We no longer mystify little seven-year-olds with im- 
probable transactions representing thousands, millions, 
etc., some of which terms even mature minds can not 
comprehend; but following Grube's plan we first take 
up the numbers from i to lO and teach the four funda- 
mental operations in connection with these numbers. 

In this as in all other lines of study ''Repetition is the 
law of memory" and there must be repetition enough to 
enable the child to perform the work quickly and almost 
mechanically at sight. Thoroughness should be the 
test for advancement to higher ground. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 23 

When the child is perfectly familiar with the opera- 
tions within the realm of the first ten numbers, the 
teacher may proceed in the same way to 20, repeating, 
reviewing and giving new illustrations. If the previous 
work has been thorough, there will be few difficulties to 
be overcome here. He may continue this plan of en- 
larging the mental horizon by lo's until 100 is reached; 
give frequent reviews and call upon the child to give 
practice examples from his own experiences. 

He should begin by using objects and let the child 
not only see but handle and count them himself. 

As soon as the child can conceive of the abstract 
number, the teacher should dispense with the objects 
and insist upon independent thought. 

To arouse interest and make the work more real he 
may give practice examples from the every-day trans- 
actions of life using class and other familiar names. 

By the Grube system the child is taught to use ob- 
jects repeatedly and in great variety, until he has 
mastered the number in its various combinations and 
can make them all abstractly. 

He has had his attention developed and trained and 
a habit of close observation cultivated, until the numbers 
thus presented have become a living practical reality. 

The irregularity of attendance in country schools is 
so great that it is a difficult matter to conduct a class in 
arithmetic properly. The pupil is out of school a week 
and the class has gone so far ahead that he can no 
longer keep up with it. Must the class be held back to 
accommodate such pupils.'' Certainly not. The teacher 



124 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

must have a number of classes, so that those who are 
too dull, or too irregular m attendance, may fall back 
and join a lower class. If he has not time to give a 
regular recitation each day to every class, he can give 
them a drill on alternate days and examples for practice 
on intervening days. In this way he can manage to 
reach all. He should, however, take notice of each pupil 
every day in some manner. He may do this by assigning 
one class examples to work on the blackboard while he 
is. conducting the recitation for the other class. He can 
then devote a few minutes to inspecting the work on 
the board. Each pupil should be allowed to travel as 
fast as he can, provided he thoroughly understands 
what he passes over. An apt pupil should never be 
held back to keep pace with a dull one. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



I would call attention to the following points, most of 
which are a recapitulation of this chapter: 

1. As a rule, teach easiest parts first. 

2. Do not hurry through the book, but give plenty of 
exercises under each subject. 

3. Teach processes first, principles next. Teach the 
rules by stating the steps in the process. 

4. Never require rules, definitions or tables to be 
committed to memory, but let them be learned by use. 

5. Let the pupil learn the explanations of rules from 
the book, the teacher only pointing them out and ex- 
plaining the language of the book. 

6. Pay particular attention to the most practical 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I25 

parts of arithmetic, such as pupils will most likely use 
in after life. 

7. Give preliminary drill on each new subject, 

8. Require pupils to always use shortest methods of 
obtaining a result, but insist on clearness of expression 
and neatness of work. 

9. An oral analysis of problems, involving only num- 
bers small enough to be held in the memory, should 
always precede a written process. The first step then 
would be the oral drill in analysis; second, the written 
process; and third, the rule, which is simply the state- 
ment of the several steps of the process. For example, 
the teacher should show analytically that | of | is -^q, 
and then deduce the written process for finding a frac- 
tion of a fraction; or that 4 is 25 per cent, of 16, and 
from that the process of finding what per cent, one 
number is of another; or that f-^i ^^ ^h ^^^ deduce the 
process of division of fractions and explain the reason 
for inverting the divisor. There may be some excep- 
tions to this with young pupils, as for example, in find- 
ing the greatest common divisor and least common 
multiple. 

10. Review often. 

EASY ACCOUNTS 

There is no reason why the children of the ordinary 
district school should not be given a lift in keeping or- 
dinary accounts, be taught how to run a farm day-book- 
and journal, a store ** blotter," a housekeeper's account 
book, and how to post a ledger for all of these. They 



126 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

should know, too, how to make out bills and receipts, 
in part or in full; how to endorse checks, drafts and 
notes — but should be earnestly cautioned not to do the 
last, even while shown how it is done — how to write 
business letters of all kinds, to accompany bills; to 
acknowledge receipt of goods or of funds; to ask about 
credentials presented by others, and to secure them if 
needed; to write letters of advice as to business trans- 
actions, such as they will be likely to have; and, in 
general, to do common bookkeeping. 

Unless I had plenty of time to command, which is not 
likely to be common in a country school, with all grades 
to be taught, I would go into nothing elaborate along 
this line, but would give a few lessons; and the pupils 
who might otherwise have leisure for mischief may so 
be given a **bent" that will result in their doing more 
thorough work later. A few points that are essential 
can be mastered in a few hours, as; 

1. All receipts go to the debtor side of an account, 
no matter whether they come in the shape of cash, 
goods, or negotiable paper. 

2. The debtor side is always at the left column on a 
double ruled page; and on the left page of a ''single" 
ruled book. 

3. Credits are the things that are given or paid — 
money, work, goods, or notes. 

4. Credits are entered at the right of the page, if a 
''double" ruled, or the right page if ruled for one column. 

"Bills payable" include all notes given; and "Bills 
receivable" those due. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 12 7 

Forms may be given for bills, drafts, checks, promis- 
sory notes (negotiable and non-negotiable) and the 
uses of each explained. The teacher may show how to 
file letters, financial papers, etc., without loss of time and 
with the fewest possible chances of error. 

In starting a farm or housekeeper's account book, 
the teacher must show that the farm or house is to be 
charged (debited) with cost; and when the expense of 
the year, or any given time is reckoned, a credit must be 
entered to balance. 

A few hints like these will open the pupils' eyes to the 
fact that bookkeeping is simple, and not a to-be-dreaded 
study, as too many think; and that it is one of the really 
useful things that will come into every-day play, no matter 
what the life business is, nor where carried on. 

They should be taught, too, that the practice of run- 
ning in debt, or maKing *' store accounts" is one of the 
things to be avoided, even if a fair knowledge of book- 
keeping has been gained. 

ENGLISH GRAMMAR 

A NOTED authority on the ''Art of Teaching School" 
says: ''If, in the spelling classes, the uses of capital 
letters and punctuation marks have been noted — as 
should be the case in spelling from dictation and dis- 
course — and if, in the reading classes, the structure of 
sentences, the meaning of words and the uses of punctu- 
ation marks have been properly studied, there is little 
remaining to be taught on the subject of grammar, to 



128 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

pupils in the public schools, that properly comes within 
the scope of these institutions." There is much truth 
in this. I have advocated particular attention to defin- 
ing, punctuation, use of capitals, etc., in reading and 
spelling classes, because these points are essential to the 
practical every-day duties of life, and from the fact that 
comparatively few pupils who attend our country schools 
ever take up the study of grammar. 

The country teacher is expected to have a class in 
grammar, and it should be taught in our country schools ; 
but I protest against the manner in which it is usually 
taught. There is no need of, and no time for, a pri- 
mary text book in grammar in a country school, nor in- 
deed, in any other school. The primary instruction in 
grammar should be given in reading and spelling classes, 
and by general criticisms and oral drills in connection 
with every other subject. That is, pupils should so be 
taught to use the English language properly. All writ- 
ten and oral exercises, where the pupil is required to use 
accurate language, are exercises in grammar. The 
teacher should always use accurate language, and cor- 
rect errors made by the pupils. This should be carried 
to the play-ground, and every place where the pupil 
comes in contact with the teacher, provided it can be 
done without giving offense to anyone. 

Primary grammar should consist of language lessons; 
and every lesson, on whatever subject, should be also a 
language lesson. I am using the word "grammar" in 
the sense understood from the definitions given by 
nearly, if not all, writers of text books on the subject, 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I29 

and from the definition of the term given by Webster — 
that is, that it is the science which teaches us how to use 
language correctly. 

Hon. E. E. White, in '"The National Teacher," 
says : "Grammar is not the means for acquiring the art 
of speaking and writing correctly. It is at best only 
the finishing instrument. The correct use of language 
must be learned, as every other art is learned, by prac- 
tice under intelligent guidance. School training should 
furnish this practice in a large measure. There can not 
well be too much of it. It should enter into every reci- 
tation, and besides have a separate place in the daily 
program. Composition should be taught as faithfully 
as arithmetic." 

I give these extracts for what they are worth. They 
simply show the difficulty of defining terms. I will add 
that it is the duty of teachers to teach that which will 
cause pupils to think, and at the same time to express 
their thoughts, either with the tongue or pen, in the most 
fluent, elegant and correct manner. They can be led 
to improve their thinking powers, to a greater or lesser 
degree by the study of any subject whatever; and the 
power of expressing thought is taught under the heads 
of Reading, Spelling, Defining, Grammar, Rhetoric, 
Composition, Elocution, Oratory, etc. 

The question, with the country teacher having a class 
before him with text books in grammar in their hands, 
is: "What part of the book shall be taught.^" I will 
answer in a general way by saying: "Teach that which 
will aid them most in expressing thought, either by 



130 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

tongue or pen." But, to be more specific, I will 
suppose a class which has never studied the subject 
technically to have in hand any standard common school 
grammar. 

The first lesson in technical grammar should be on the 
structure of simple sentences. 

The teacher may write a word as rtui on the black- 
board, and then ask the class to tell him the name of 
something that runs. They will probably say: ''Horses 
run," "A dog runs," "Water runs," etc. He may tell 
them that it is correct, and they can see that it would 
not sound well to say " Horses runs," or "A dog run." 
Next he may write the sentence, Horses 7'im, on the 
board; and tell them that it is a thought expressed in 
words, and is called a sentence. Then he may give an 
exercise in producing sentences, and have the class give 
half a dozen sentences similar to this, and he may write 
them on the board. Next he may teach them the prin- 
cipal parts of a sentence, the subject and predicate. He 
must be sure that the pupils have a clear idea of these 
terms. I remember that when a boy studying grammar 
the definition of subject and predicate were for a long 
time not understood. I did not know what was meant 
by affiinned, when the book and teacher said : " The 
subject is that of which something is affirmed." It 
sounded big and frightful, and I never had a clear idea 
until I saw somewhere the definition : "The subject is 
that of which something is said or written." Now, I 
might have been an unusually dull boy — in some 
respects I know I was — but are there not dull boys in 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 13 I 

every class? The best teacher makes a subject plain 
to the dullest in his class. He should give plenty of 
oral exercises, somewhat as follows: Chalk is brittle. 
What is brittle.? What is said about chalk.? What is 
the subject of this sentence.? Why.? What is the 
predicate.? Why.? He may require the class to write 
three or four sentences for each lesson. He may write 
a word, as ''fireT on the board, and ask the class to 
write as many predicates for this subject as they can; 
also write a predicate, and require them to write a num- 
ber of subjects. Most text books now give model exer- 
cises which will suggest the oral drill. 

After several lessons on the simple sentence, and 
when the pupils thoroughly understand the principal 
■parts of a sentence, I would study the noun. The first 
lesson would be an outline of the noun, to be made out 
by teacher and pupils. The teacher writes the main 
heads and tells where to write the subordinate parts. 
The outline, when completed, will stand as follows, the 
parts in italics showing what was written by the teacher 
and those in roman the parts filled in by the pupils : 
Noun. 

Classes. 

General. 

Common. 

Proper. 
special. 

Abstract. 

Verbal. 

Collective. 

Class, 



132 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Properties. 

Gender. 

Masculine. 

Feminine. 

Common. 

Neuter. 

Person. 
First. 
Second. 
Third. 

Number. 

Singular. 
Plural. 

Case. 

Nominative. 
Possessive. 
Objective. 
Absolute. 

Pupils who have had exercise in outlining in other 
studies, perhaps would be able to produce the above 
without the aid of the teacher. But this is intended 
to be merely suggestive; and the teacher must pro- 
ceed according to the circumstances present. Several 
lessons may be m.ade from this outline, discussing all 
the parts until a pretty thorough knowledge of the noun 
is secured, so far as can be, without reference to other 
parts of speech. The parsing of nouns, so far as the 
pupil is able from what he has learned, and exercises in 
writing sentences containing nouns, illustrating their 
properties and classes, should be a part of every lesson. 
The advantage of writing parsing lessons will be 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I33 

obvious to any thinking teacher. It will secure exercise 
in spelling, punctuation, capitalization and penmanship, 
will be more interesting, and lead to definite and 
accurate thinking. The teacher should have some 
particular order of parsing, and require all pupils 
to follow it. In another place models will be given for 
the written parsing of each part of speech. 

The verb may be studied in a similar manner. An 
outline giving classes and properties is to be made out 
and the different parts of it discussed. The more 
difficult parts may be omitted until a future time, 
taking only such as are usually given in large print in 
text books, taking a small portion at each lesson, and 
giving oral and written exercises as before. 

The next step is to introduce the objective element 
into the sentence. The pupil now will understand that 
a sentence must have a subject and a predicate, and 
may have an object- The pronoun may be studied 
next, to be followed by the adjective, adverb, preposi- 
tion, conjunction and interjection, each to be outlined 
and discussed as above. After a discussion of the 
adjective, adverbial and mdependent elements of a 
sentence, a review of the parts of speech, beginning 
again with the noun, should be had, studying them in 
their relations to each other. This time the pupils can 
make the outlines themselves, adding all the minor 
points. Compound and complex sentences may next 
be considered, and the lessons varied with plenty of 
written sentences and diagramming. 

The teacher is now ready to introduce the subject of 



134 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

composition writing. This is a great bugbear to most 
pupils in country schools, but it is the fault of no one 
but the teacher. I remember, when a boy, attending a 
term of school taught by a lady who required, every 
Friday, a composition from each pupil who was old 
enough to write. By dint of coaxing and threatening 
she succeeded in getting everyone to try but me. I 
was obstinate, and no coaxing or threatening would 
induce me to attempt what I was confident I could not 
do. The pupils wrote compositions on such subjects as 
spring, autumn, sunset, education; and their thoughts 
and language were almost sublime. It is said there is 
but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. They 
had almost taken that step, backward. Years afterward 
I attended a select school, and the teacher was a true 
teacher; and instead of requiring us to write composi- 
tions, he taught us hozv to write them, when it was only 
necessary to give us the privilege. 

Sentence writing is the first step to composition 
writing; and if the teacher has thus far given sufficient 
exercise in that branch the next step will be easy 
enough. All that is necessary for a composition is to 
put together a number of sentences relating to the 
.ame subject. But no one can write sentences or com- 
position unless he has something to write about. A 
single word is not sufficient for a subject for a beginner. 
He must have an outline or skeleton of what he is 
going to write about. This the teacher must provide; 
and he must give instruction on points of the outline, at 
first, until the pupil has acquired sufficient skill and 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I35 

command of language and power of thought to construct 
the outhne for himself. 

Beginners, if left to themselves, will generally choose 
some broad theme, as education, intemperance, etc., 
not knowing that it is far easier to write on a more 
restricted subject. Men of such broad and liberal 
culture as Herbert Spencer may take such a subject as 
education for an essay. The brilliant essayists of this 
country, as Whipple, Lowell and Holland, may take for 
their themes humanity, liberty, or truth; but a beginner 
should choose something more concrete and restricted, 
such as: Wheat, Apples, Dogs, Cats, A Walk in the 
Country, What I saw at the Fair, or some other simple 
topic. 

The simplest form of essay writing, perhaps, is to 
write a number of questions and require the pupil to 
write out the answers in full and connect them. For 
example, let me suppose the subject to be '*My Dog." 
The teacher will write a series of questions, as follows: 
Have you a dog.-^ What kind of a dog is he.-^ What is 
his color.? Has he long hair.? What kind of a tail has 
he.? Will he bark at strangers.? Is he cross.? Will 
he do what you tell him.? Will you name some of the 
smart things he can do.? Does he dislike children.? 
What is his name.? 

The essay, when written, will appear something like 
the following : 

MY DOG 

I have a large Newfoundland dog. He is all over black, ex- 
cept a white ring around his neck. He has long, shaggy hair, 



136 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

and his tail is long and bushy and curls up over his back. He 
will bark at strangers, but he is not cross, and will not bite any- 
one unless he thinks they are going to steal somediing. He will 
do almost anything I tell him. He will bring the cows and 
horses up from the meadow, will fetch sticks out of the water, 
and carry a basket in his mouth. He is not cross to children, 
but will let them ride on his back or pull him around, and seems 
to enjoy the fun. His name is Ring. 

A few such exercises as the above will, to use a 
common expression, get pupils in the way of writing 
compositions. It is frequently necessary to resort to 
such expedients to get pupils interested and started, 
after which they may become the best of writers. I 
have no doubt that the name Composition has fright- 
ened many a person who, by proper training, would 
have made a good writer. 

The next easiest kind of composition is that of letter 
writing. Familiar letters to friends, giving an account 
of a party, a sleigh-ride, a picnic, a description of their 
homes or their schoolhouse, telling what work they 
have done or what studies they are pursuing, or any- 
thing else which may interest them, may be written by 
pupils in a grammar class. There will be no difficulty 
in getting the majority of pupils in such a class to try 
their skill at such work. There may be some who will 
refuse, either from diffidence or from stubbornness, to 
attempt anything of the kind; but by kind endeavor, by 
argument, they may be won over by the teacher. 

The teacher should not be too severe in criticising 
compositions of beginners; rather praise than condemn, 
confining criticisms at first entirely to spelling, capitali- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



137 



zation, errors in grammar and the more important parts 
of punctuation. As the pupil acquires more skill in 
the use of the pen in conveying thought, the criticisms 
may extend to the matter of elegance, style, etc. 
After exercise in writing compositions from questions 
and in writing letters of friendship, easy descriptions 
may be attempted. The following outline and essay 
on ''Stoves" will be suggestive of this kind of exercise: 





Stove. 


Definition. 




Kinds. 


Parts. 




With regard to use: 


Top. 




Cooking. 


Bottom. 




Heating. 


Sides. 






Doors. 




With regard to shape 


Body. 




and style: 


Hinges. 




Box. 


Lids. 




Cannon. 


Ovens. 




Plain. 


Water reservoir. 




Ornamental. 


Hearth. 






Dampers. 




With regard to fuel : 


Pipe. 




Wood. 


Flues. 




Coal. 


Ash pan. 




Gas. 


Mica doors. 




Oil. 


Grate. 







STOVES 

A stove is an iron box, arranged in such a manner that a fire 
can be made in it and the smoke and gas conducted out of the 
room, and is used for the purpose of heating rooms and for cook- 
ing food, etc. 



138 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Some stoves have flat tops, with holes which are covered by 
lids, for the purposes of cooking, heating water, etc. Others 
have round or irregular shaped tops, made more for ornament 
than for use. The sides are generally ornamented with raised 
designs. Some are provided with ovens for baking purposes. 
Under the oven there are flues for conducting the heated air. In 
front there is a place for ashes called the hearth, sometimes con- 
taining a pan to hold the ashes; this can be lifted out and 
emptied when full. An arrangement is made in the flue or pipe 
to open or shut, to regulate the draft. It is called a damper, 
Stoves for burning coal have grates to hold the coal up, so that 
the ashe? will separate from it. All stoves have a door with 
hinges. Sometimes these doors have little windows with a 
transparent mineral called mica in them, instead of glass. Glass 
could not be used, as the heat would crack it. These little win- 
dows make a stove look very pretty, as through them we can see 
the glowing fire. I like to sit and look at the bright, glowing 
coals. 

There are many kinds of stoves. We may divide them into 
kinds with regard to use, as cooking stoves and heating stoves, or 
with regard to shape and style, as box, cannon, plain and orna- 
mental stoves; also with regard to the fuel used, as wood, coal, 
oil and gas stoves. Some stoves are very pretty pieces of 
furniture, and cost a great deal of money. 

There are many familiar objects which would be 
much easier to describe than a stove. I have given 
this as an example of what may be done by almost any 
pupil old enough to use a text book in grammar. 
Many pupils could write a far better description than 
the one given above. The teacher should make sug- 
gestions upon the outline, giving facts of which the 
pupil may not be possessed and hints in regard to de- 
scribing the different parts. The points in the above 



TN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 39 

outline may be drawn from the class by judicious 
questioning. These essays need not be long. Better 
write short compositions, and have them well written, 
than long ones badly composed. 

I have found that children, and indeed all of us, do 
not lack so much for language as we do for ideas, or 
rather ideas in a classified and connected form. This 
exercise of outlining furnishes a means of arranging 
our ideas in a proper shape so that we can write or 
speak of one thing at a time and in a proper order. In 
this way we need not repeat nor omit anything, for the 
plan and order of what we are going to say is mapped 
out for us. One will indeed be astonished at his own 
knowledge when he sees it thus arranged and spread 
out before him. 

After exercises in easy description, subjects in sim- 
ple narration may be given. Let the pupils narrate 
what they did during the previous day or week. In 
the lives of the humblest individuals enough tran- 
spires almost every day, if all the minutiae were written, 
to make quite a lenghty composition. Anyone can 
certainly say more than Mark Twain said in his diary 
which he kept when a boy, viz: ''Got up, washed and 
went to bed." This was all he could think of each 
day to write in his diary; so he kept repeating it day 
after day until it became tiresome, and he abandoned 
the idea of keeping a diary. A pupil may narrate all 
the actions in order as he can call them to mind, from 
getting up in the morning to going to bed at night. 
For example, let me enumerate some of the actions of 



140 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

a boy during one day: Got up, washed his face, etc., 
combed his hair, ate his breakfast (here I might enumer- 
ate the different articles of food eaten, tell some things 
that were said at the table, etc.) carried in wood, 
chopped wood, fed the horses, cows, sheep and pigs, 
carried water, went to a neighbor's on an errand, 
started to school, met some other boys, played awhile 
on the road, was late to school, studied and recited the 
various lessons (here I might tell some things that he 
learned), played certain games at noon and recess, 
came home, did the chores, which I need not enumerate, 
being the same as he did in the morning, ate supper 
and went to bed. Have I omitted anything.-* Yes, I 
did not say he ate dinner. Now, let a boy tell all this 
in his own way, subject to the criticisms of his classmates 
and teacher, and he will have quite a little piece of 
narration, and the foundation may be laid for future 
journalism. Let the pupils give an account of some 
accident which happened in the neighborhood, or of a 
quarrel which took place on the play -ground, or an 
account of a trip to some town, river or lake, or an 
account of an excursion, a picnic, or a visit to a factory 
or foundry. 

This essay writing should be given in connection 
with a review of the points of technical grammar, and 
need not be a daily exercise. Perhaps about two days 
out of the week may be profitably devoted to this; the 
other three to written and oral lessons in parsing and 
analysis. This matter will, however, vary with circum- 
stances. The teacher must be the judge. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I4I 

Grammar need not be considered a dry, hard study 
if it is properly taught. As before stated, there should 
be but one class in grammar in a country school, but 
that class should have, on an average, seven or eight 
pupils, instead of two or three, as is the case in schools 
^which have come under my observation. 

I append a few models for the written parsing of the 
parts of speech, as being suggestive to the teacher. 

NOUN 

John studies grammar. 

John, n., prop., masc, third, sing., nom., subj. of 
the prop., John studies grammar. R. The subject of 
a proposition, etc. 

PRONOUN 

■■,%■■■■■■ 
/ bought the book. 

/, pron., pers., simp., antec, name of the person 
speaking, masc, first, sing., R. [Here give rule for 
agreement.] nom., subj. of the prop., I bought the book. 
R. [Here give rule for construction.] 

/ remember what you said. 

What, pron., rel., equivalent to that which, that be- 
ing the antec. part and which the relative. 

That, adj., pronom., used as a noun, obj., object of v. 
remember. 

Which, pron., rel., antec. that, neut., third, sing., 
obj., object of v. said. R. 



142 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING g 

VERB 

Liberty is szveet. 

Is, v., irreg. (am, was, being, been), intrans. indie., 
pres., third, sing., agrees with subj. liberty. R. 

ADVERB 

He acted wisely. 

Wisely, adv. (comp. wisely, more wisely, most wisely) 
of manner, modifies v. acted. R. 

ADJECTIVE 

TJie diligent boy zvill he praised. 

Diligent, adj., descrip., com., (comp. diligent, more 
diligent, most diligent) pos. qualifies n. boy. 

HISTORY 

History is one of the most important of studies, yet 
I venture to say of those who have considerable knowl- 
edge of history, that they did not obtain much of it 
in school. History is a narration of events. No one 
has a memory sufiicient to retain all events which have 
been made known to him. The great mistake made by 
too many teachers is that they try to teach history in 
detail; and the pupils, in trying to remember all, 
remember but little. It is like trying to take up a 
dozen eggs at once in one hand. In the endeavor to 
grasp all we get none. Could we, indeed, remember 
all the details of history, of what benefit would it be.-^ 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I43 

It is only the great events and the lessons to be drawn 
from them which are of benefit to us. I remember 
studying history in a country school, years ago. We 
read a lesson over and the teacher asked us all the 
questions found at the bottom of the page. We an- 
swered many of them and generally in the language of 
the author. The teacher pronounced us good scholars; 
but to-day I can scarcely recall a single event le-arned 
from that book. I distinctly remember the portraits 
of Washington and Daniel Webster, miserable wood 
cuts, that had, I suppose, a faint resemblance to the 
shadows of those great men, also a picture representing 
the death of General Wolfe, and that the book was 
bound in black cloth and had red edges, and that is 
about all I can remember. I have since then taken 
considerable interest in reading history in course; but 
I learned far more that has been of real benefit to me 
by teaching it, and I ascribe my success to the fact 
that I tried to select a few of the most important events 
and their dates to fix in the minds of my pupils; and in 
doing so, I learned them myself. 

The greater number of the text books on history 
used in our schools are failures, even in the hands of 
good teachers. Why.? Because they are but masses 
of dry details. Why not give only the most important 
events and illustrate them by anecdote and by a felic- 
itous mode of relating them, rather than catalogue-like 
paragraphs, giving only the dry bones or chronology of 
the subject.-^ There may be others, but thus far I have 
seen but one book which meets my ideas of a good 



144 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

school History of the United States. It is Barnes's 
Brief History. If the teacher has not such a work, he 
should have half a dozen different authors and be well 
read in different works, that he may, when he has 
selected the important points, so illustrate them that 
pupils will remember them in spite of themselves. 

The main point in learning history is to make many 
minor events cluster and crystallize around some im- 
portant fact which should be learned as thoroughly as 
the multiplication table. The association of ideas aids 
much in the study of history. Why do we all remem- 
ber who General Greene was.? Because he figured in 
the Revolution ; and that is one of the events which will 
be remembered the easiest by all readers of history. 
So, when we think of the Revolution, we think of a 
hundred other things more or less directly connected 
with it. 

A good way to teach history is to require the pupils 
to write essays on historical subjects; nor is this im- 
practicable in country schools. The next best plan is 
to assign each pupil a topic for investigation and re- 
port. A lesson of considerable length may be assigned 
the class, dividing it up into portions, giving each pupil 
a certain subject to investigate especially, but expect- 
ing him to read the whole lesson over several times 
carefully. Certain portions of the lesson may be read 
at recitation, the same as in a reading class; then each 
pupil is required to report on his topic, others criticis- 
ing and adding to it if possible. In this way the whole 
lesson may be brought out, and by class drill on the 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I45 

most important parts, and by daily reviews, a pretty 
thorough knowledge of the whole subject may be 
obtained. The most important parts should be re- 
viewed until fixed, and then the lesser details may be 
taken up. Remembering dates is not the whole of 
studying history, but it is an important part of it. Some 
persons have a much better memory of dates than 
others. I would have a class remember a few im- 
portant dates first, and gradually add to them until I 
had all the dates of importance. The teacher should 
write on the board two columns of dates: one in large 
characters the other in small. Among the large char- 
acters he may put 1492, 1565, 1607, 1620, 1754, 1776, 
etc. The events connected with these dates may be 
first studied, each one made a lesson. As the lesser 
points are brought out the dates may be placed in the 
second column. Reviews should be had daily until 
each member of the class can relate the event connected 
with the dates in the first column; then the dates in 
the second column should be reviewed until they are 
learned. A few only may be placed in the second 
column, and a third column of still lesser dates be 
made. The point is to learn the most important first, 
and then those of less importance, and so on as many 
as are likely to be permanently remembered. 

Instead of keeping a class a whole term on a few 
pages of the history of the United States, in order to 
learn all the minutiae, I would take them through the 
book and let them gather what they could, taking care 
that it should be the prominent facts first, and then as 



146 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

much more as possible. I would not be understood as 
taking them through the history as through a chrono- 
logical table, getting only the dry bones; but I would 
clothe these with living, breathing flesh as I went along. 
A certain amount of detail is necessary to illustrate 
and make an important fact interesting; yet the detail 
should be used to help fix the main fact in the mind. 
To make my point plainer, suppose the subject to be 
the French and Indian wars. Now, there were nu- 
merous battles and skirmishes and treaties; but before 
I should expect a class to remember them all, I would 
have them read an interesting account of Braddock's 
defeat and the fall of Quebec, the two most prominent 
events in all those wars. I would have them know 
something of the character and conduct of Braddock, 
the discipline of British soldiers, the mode of fighting 
among the Indians, the locality of the battle, the career 
of the young Washington, etc. ; and in the other case 
the death of Wolfe and Montcalm and other circum- 
stances connected with it, the nature of the battle- 
ground, etc. Two lessons might be given which would 
make a more permanent impression, and two dates 
learned which would be longer remembered, than if a 
dozen lessons had been made of this subject and all the 
dates and minor details of these wars committed to 
memory. 

To make the study interesting, and for variety, the 
teacher should gather together, for the purpose of using 
in his class, a number of the characteristic sayings of 
historical characters, as ''Don't give up the ship"; "We 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I47 

have met the enemy and they are ours" ; ''A little more 
grape, Capt. Bragg"; ''We will fight it out on this line 
if it takes all summer," etc. ; also some of the popular 
appellations of great men, as ''Rough and Ready," 
''Sage of Monticello," "The American Pathfinder," 
etc., and such terms as "Fillibusters," "Know Noth- 
ings," "Grangers." He can make use of this list in 
review lessons, and it will add much to the interest of 
the recitation. By use of judicious questions the 
teacher can, in reviewing, fix many points of interest. 
Questions somewhat as follows should be asked : Who 
was Roger WilHams? Pocahontas.? Sir Walter Raleigh.? 
Balboa.? Major Andre.? What men figured prominently 
in the war of 1812.? What battle was fought after 
peace was declared between the two countries.? What 
led to the settlement of California.? What were the 
acquisitions of territory to the United States.? Who 
was President during the war of 181 2.? During the 
Mexican War.? What was the Missouri Compromise.? 
etc. A few such questions should be asked for review 
every day. 

Pupils who are sufficiently advanced and have time 
from other studies, should be encouraged to write short 
sketches on historical subjects. I would not impose it 
as a duty, but request it and encourage any inclination 
the pupils may show in that direction. They may be 
encouraged also to relate incidents which they may have 
read in other works. 

There is no branch of learning in which there is 
such susceptibiUty of illustration by the introduction 



148 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

of collateral and explanatory matter. If the teacher 
is well read, he can enliven each recitation by briefly 
relating some incident or making some explanation not 
found in the text books. 

The study of geography should go hand in hand with 
history. Free use of the map and globe should be 
made to illustrate the lessons. Pupils should be en- 
couraged to read fragments of history, such as Abbott's 
Histories, some of the more interesting biographies of 
great men, and many of the historical works written 
especially for the young. The teacher should point out 
certain such works which may be accessible to his pupils. 

Attention should be paid to the progress and devel- 
opment of science, art and literature among the people; 
and in reviews scientific men, inventors, artists, poets 
and authors should be grouped according to their respect- 
ive epochs. The dates of great inventions and dis- 
coveries and their effects on civilization should be re- 
membered, as well as the rise and fall of dynasties or 
the record of battles and political intrigues. 

GEOGRAPHY 

"Geography can not be taught in any proper sense of the word by 
maps or a bald and wearisome nomenclature of countries, cities, moun- 
tains and rivers. What is wanted is that these should be intimately 
blended with the history of the world, of nature, and the history of 
mankind, thereby better fixing the whole in the memory and giving to 
geography its true rank among the sciences. The change thus indi- 
cated is in progress, but much is still wanted for its full accomplish- 
ment. Sir Henry Holland. 

Geography as taught in many schools — merely by 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I49 

question and answer, with an occasional map drill — is 
of little practical value ; but in the hands of a compe- 
tent instructor who teaches, rather than hears a class 
recite, it is an interesting and valuable study. 

It has been my experience that but a small propor- 
tion of the pupils of a country school who are of the 
proper age study geography. Upon inquiry the uni- 
versal reason given was that they did not like the study. 
Now, whose fault is this.^ Certainly the teacher's. 
The teacher should awaken an interest in this study 
in his school; and the way to do this is to teach it 
properly and persuade pupils to enter the class. If he 
^teaches it as he should and succeeds in getting a pupil 
to enter the class and remain one week, I will venture 
to assert that that pupil will remain for the whole term. 
In my opinion there is no study of greater importance. 
It is a branch of knowledge which a Humboldt, a Ritter 
and a Guyot have adorned, and deserves no mean place 
among the knowledges of the earth. 

There need be but two classes in geography in a 
country school, a primary and an advanced. 

With a beginning class I would proceed somewhat 
as follows: (I am supposing that the class is composed 
of pupils who have never studied the subject). I would 
begin with an oral drill on direction, next develop the 
idea of a map by drawing a map of the school room. 
I would draw the boundary lines on the board, explain- 
ing that the top of the diagram will represent north, 
the bottom south, etc., and ask the pupils to step to the 
board and make a mark to represent the location of the 



150 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

stove, the teacher's desk, etc., and proceed until the 
pupils themselves have mapped out the schoolroom 
and located all the principal objects in it. The next 
step would be to map the school-yard, locating the 
schoolhouse, the out-houses, trees and other objects. 
I might proceed from this to the surrounding farms ; 
but perhaps enough has been shown to develop the 
idea of a map, that it is a representation of a part or 
the whole of the earth's surface. Next, I may ask 
some questions about what is found on the surface of 
the earth. By a few judicious questions I will obtain 
from the class the facts that rivers, lakes, mountains, 
cities, towns, etc., are to be seen on the earth's surface. 
Then I will tell them that we are going to learn all 
about what we would find on the surface of the earth if 
we could travel over it, and about the different kinds of 
people and what they are doing, and many things that 
are very interesting and useful; that men have learned 
these things by traveling and observing and have written 
them in books for us to study that we may learn with- 
out traveling far from home. With this preliminary 
drill they are ready to take up a primary work on geog- 
raphy and begin with the study of the form of the 
earth, the divisions of land and water, etc. If possible, 
use a globe to illustrate, if not, get a substitute for one, 
an apple or a ball. Explain some of the more obvious 
modes of proving the rotundity of the earth. If possible 
take the class to a lake shore or river bank and show 
them capes, bays, islands, etc. Such objects can gener- 
ally be found on a small scale along a river or lake shore. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I5I 

The topic method of teaching geography can be 
made .successful even with beginners; but the topics 
must be modified to suit their capacities. 

Most text books on geography are filled with ques- 
tions, and the teacher is tempted to fall into a rote 
manner of teaching and content himself with asking 
the questions and hearing the pupils answer. While I 
would not ignore questions in teaching, I would cer- 
tainly avoid depending on them. 

Slates should be used by primary classes in prepar- 
ing their lessons. The names of all the prominent 
objects of study in the lesson should be carefully 
written on the slate. For example, let the pupil write 
the words continent, island, cape, river, lake, etc., on 
the slate and be required to find the definition of the 
terms in the book. The teacher may write on the 
board the principal points of the lesson for the pupil to 
copy. In studying a map the teacher should require the 
pupils to write a certain number of cities, rivers, moun- 
tains, etc., allowing the pupil to select what he thinks 
the most important. The pupil may write also a cer- 
tain number of the products of a country, as: wheat, 
corn, coal, iron, gold, silver, etc. Lessons may be 
assigned as they are laid off in the book; but a written 
exercise should sometimes accompany them. Frequent 
review lessons should be given, involving all points of 
importance the pupil has passed over. 

Map drills should be had daily, sometimes the teacher 
pointing to the map and the pupils answering as called 
upon or occasionally in concert, and sometimes the 



152 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

pupils in turn point out places on the map as mentioned 
by the teacher. 

It is a good exercise to take an ideal trip, as, for 
example, starting with Chicago, the teacher and class 
sail in imagination to New York, mentioning and com- 
menting upon all the prominent places of interest they 
would pass on the route. I will here mention a few 
such routes: From London to St. Petersburg via Gib- 
raltar, following the coasts of Spain, Italy and Greece, 
and through Constantinople, the Black Sea, and up the 
river and overland across Russia. From St. Peters- 
burg, through the Baltic and along coasts of Denmark, 
Holland and Belgium, to London. From London, again, 
to Pekin, around the Cape of Good Hope and via 
Calcutta. From New York to New Orleans, following 
coast, and from thence to Pittsburg via Cincinnati and 
by railroad back again to New York. A whaling 
voyage from Boston to the Arctic ocean. A trip from 
Philadelphia to Rio Janeiro, for coffee. Such exercises 
may be made extremely interesting to children and are 
excellent for review. Mention may be made of the 
governments, races, productions, curiosities and other 
peculiarities of countries as they are passed on these 
imaginary voyages. 

Do not attempt to teach too many things, but by 
frequent reviews fix thoroughly the most important 
points. For example, if a pupil learns that a certain 
state produces three or four certain staples, and can 
tell whether it is level or mountainous, can mention 
the capital and largest city and locate them, the prin- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 53 

cipal river and lake, if any, and can give its bound- 
aries and comparative size and tell what direction 
from his own state — if these points are fixed by 
thorough drill, he will remember them longer and the 
knowledge be of more practical benefit than if he had 
learned every little river, lake, town and all the minutiae 
of detail, only to be forgotten perhaps before the next 
recitation. (See page 26.) 

It is a good idea to go over the main points of each 
lesson in concert as a kind of recapitulation at the close 
of each recitation. 

Suggestive questions, such as the following, may 
sometimes be put to primary classes: 

What city is world-renowned for carpets? In what 
city would you ride in a gondola instead of an omnibus.? 
In what country do the women always go out veiled, 
and the men wear loose, flowing robes, and sit cross- 
legged and smoke opium.? What island is celebrated 
for its peat bogs, potatoes, oats and flax, etc., etc.? 

Review lessons may be given somewhat as follows: 
Each pupil is assigned a subject for investigation and 
report — something easy, yet which will require a 
search of the book; as, for example, John is told to 
find all the countries in which mention is made of 
gold, Mary of silver, Henry of lions, Willie of ele- 
phants, Carrie of diamonds, etc. The names of the 
countries when found may be written on the slates, 
which are brought to the recitation and laid upon 
teacher's desk. The teacher takes up a slate and calls 
on the owner of it to mention from memory as much 



154 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

as he can of what he has written. The others may 
criticise errors and add to it if they can. 

For primary classes it is best that all the pupils have 
the same text book; but an advanced class may be 
taught entirely by the topic method, and it is even 
better if each member of the class has a different au- 
thor. I have used a topic list something like the fol- 
lowing : 

_, . , ( Boundaries, 

1. Position, i T . , 

( Latitude and Longitude. 

2. Size. 

3. Mountains and surface generally. 

4. Rivers and lakes. 
Gulfs, bays, straits, etc. 



5. Coast line, 

( Capes, islands, etc. 

6. Climate. 

I Animal, 

7. Productions, a Vegetable, 

( Mineral. 

{Agricultural and grazing, 
Commerce and fisheries, 
Mining, 
Manufacturing. 
9. Government, education and religion. 
ID. Capital and largest city. 

11. Other cities and places of interest. 

12. History. 

13. Population. 

14. Miscellaneous. 

This is to be used in studying the text of the several 
countries. It should be written on the blackboard and 
copied by the pupils and pasted in their books. The 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 55 

teacher will explain the outline where necessary. In 
giving latitude and longitude, countries should be 
compared with each other, foreign countries with our 
own states, and the states .with each other. The ab- 
solute size of a few countries should be remembered, 
especially the pupil's own state, and other states and 
countries compared with it. Very large and very small 
states and countries should be compared, as Rhode 
Island and Texas, England and Russia, etc. In study- 
ing surface I have given mountains as the most promi- 
nent objects; but the pupil should be led to mention 
height above sea level, plateaus, volcanoes, basins, 
water-sheds, etc. The absolute height of the most 
important peaks in each country should be remembered 
and the direction of the mountain chains noted. Rivers 
should be described by telling where they rise, what 
course they pursue and into what they empty. Lakes, 
either salt or fresh, having outlets or inlets, both or 
neither, depth, height above sea level, etc. The pupil 
should be taught that climate depends on latitude, 
proximity to or remoteness from large bodies of water, 
character and proximity of ocean currents, height of 
land, slope, character of soil, and the prevailing winds. 

Under head of animal productions, the wild and do- 
mestic animals should be mentioned, and the articles 
produced from them, as furs, wool, feathers, leather, 
tallow, honey, beeswax, glue, bone-dust, bone, horn, 
and silk. The vegetable productions are such as grain, 
mentioning the different kinds, fruits, flax, potatoes, 
gums, resins, medicines, dye-stuffs, timber, turpentine, 



156 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

tar, etc. The mineral productions are the metals, 
building material, as marble, granite, limestone, sand, 
lime, potter's clay, mineral paints, and precious stones. 
Under the head of commerce might be mentioned the 
principal articles of export and import. Under manu- 
facturing, the different articles manufactured. Under 
the head of history, if one of the States of the Union, 
its first settlement, when, where and by whom, date of 
admission; if other countries, some of the principal 
points in their history, as great battles, changes of 
government. Under the head miscellaneous, mention 
may be made of anything that would be of interest and 
which can not well be brought under any of the previ- 
ous heads, such as natural curiosities, races, languages, 
and dialects spoken, peculiar customs of the people, 
national character etc. 

The above list is flexible enough to adapt itself to 
an advanced class in any school. There are, of course, 
great differences in pupils; and the teacher must recog- 
nize this in teaching any branch and adapt his plans 
to them. The pupil is to be made to understand that 
he is expected to obtain the information here outlined; 
and it need not matter where he obtains it, whether 
from this author or from that, or partly from one and 
partly from another. He may learn from travelers, 
from miscellaneous works or from newspapers, from 
any reliable source, provided he gets the information in 
such a way that he can tell it. Dull and backward 
pupils will need to be questioned to bring out their 
knowledge; but this should not be done where it can be 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 157 

avoided. The pupil should be taught to rely upon 
himself and tell what he knows without being ques- 
tioned. Pupils who have been taught in the old rote 
manner may make objections to this manner of study, 
but the true teacher will soon win them to his own 
views. He should explain to them the advantages, and 
at first modify the plan so as not to make too sudden a 
change. 

This topic list cannot be used in all classes. Special 
outlines should be given in studying some of the points 
of mathematical and physical geography. Review 
lessons may be given by special outlines; for example, 
lakes may be given as a lesson and outlined on the 
board somewhat as follows: 



Lakes. 



1. Origin. 

2. Classes. 

1. As to character of water. 

2. As to outlets and inlets. 

3. Elevation. 

4. Uses. 

5. Principal lakes of the world. 

I. As to commercial importance. 
As to elevation. 
As to size. 

As to beautiful scenery. 
As to any other peculiarity. 



Mountains, volcanoes, seas, gulfs and bays, oceans, 
rivers, etc., may be outlined in a similar manner. 
Such special outlines for review are of great practical 



158 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

value, gathering up, as it were, the* knowledge which 
has been attained into parcels and labeling them, 

A special outline should also be given for the pupil's 
own state. This should be very full and minute, 
embracing all the points which would be worth remem- 
bering. Ail the latest geographies develop this plan 
of paying particular attention to home and local 
geography and give such an outline for the study 
of any particular state. The teacher, however, who is 
acquainted with his own state and has paid some 
attention to outlining can easily produce one which 
will suit his purpose better than could be given here. 

The teacher should have a map of the state showing 
counties and townships, and if possible a map of the 
county. These maps should be provided by school 
boards for every schoolhouse. The teacher may, how- 
ever, do as I have done in several instances, draw on 
the wall with colored chalk a map of the county, 
showing townships; and the township the schoolhouse 
was in, showing school district, schoolhouses, roads, 
streams, etc. I copied them from borrowed maps. 
(See p. 200.) 

Some system of map drawing should be pursued, but 
I would caution the teacher against making a hobby of 
it. It is a means and not an end. The teacher should 
recognize also the different capacities of his pupils in 
this respect. Some will seem to have a natural ability to 
draw, while with others it is a difficult matter to interest 
them or teach them to draw even passably. Particular 
pains should be taken in drawing the pupils' own state; 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 59 

but if it is one difficult to draw, do not give it as the first 
lesson. Drill them in drawing some state of regular 
and easy outline. I need not say anything further on 
this head, as all text books now give instructions in map 
drawing. 

For advanced pupils the teacher should prepare 
questions which will lead them to think and apply their 
knowledge — questions which can not be answered in 
the language of any book, but such as the pupil must 
answer from his own knowledge of the facts. As an 
example of such questions the teacher will ask why 
New England is a manufacturing country; why Iowa 
and Illinois raise so many hogs; why gold and silver 
are not found in Illinois; why sheep are raised so 
extensively in Ohio and California; why New Jersey 
and Delaware raise so many fruits and vegetables ; why 
Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska have so few large cities; 
why education is not more universally diffused through- 
out the Southern States; why Indian corn is not raised 
in England; why England has such fine breeds of 
cattle and horses; what would be the effect on the 
climate of Italy, France, Greece and Spain if the 
Desert of Sahara were turned into a sea; why the 
climate of Colorado is both dry and peculiar; why there 
are so many Spanish names of towns, etc., in the Terri- 
tories and States west of the Mississippi, and so many 
French names along the St. Lawrence and Mississippi; 
why Quito, being on the equator, has such a pleasant 
climate, etc. The teacher, who is well versed in a 
knowledge of geography, as he should be, can multiply 



l6o BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

such questions to any necessary extent. A few such 
questions should be assigned at one time, and the pupils 
allowed two or three days to prepare their answers. 

In the hands of a live teacher a class in geography 
may be made the most enthusiastic and interesting 
class of the school. There are some points in teaching 
geography which may be called Geographical Recre- 
ations. For example, the origin and significance of 
names of places and countries. If the teacher will 
consult Webster's Unabridged Dictionary he will find 
material of this kind. Also, the popular names of cities 
and states, as Garden City, Crescent City, Hoosier State, 
Hawkeye State, etc. 

The formation of some of the physical features of 
the earth's surface may be illustrated in a simple and 
pleasing manner by means of a large tray made of 
boards, in the shape of a box, about three inches deep 
and two feet wide by three or four feet in length. 
A dry goods box will answer by cutting it down to the 
required depth. Fill this with wet sand,^ to within half 
an inch of the top. Mountains, hills, plateaus and 
plains may be formed with the sand. A volcano may 
be made by placing a piece of unslacked lime in a 
mountain and wetting the sand. In a little while the 
lime will slack and the sides of the mountain will 
become hot and crack open and an opening appear in 
the top, from which will issue steam and powdered 
lime. By inclining the tray and pouring a shower of 
water from a sprinkling can, the formation of rivers 

* If sand is not obtainable, use fine sawdust, omitting the lime. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS l6l 

may be shown. If the sand is so arranged that the 
lowest part is along the center, the water will collect 
and form a large river and its tributaries. The wash- 
ing down of the mountains to form plains is also 
illustrated. The formation of canons may be illus- 
trated by taking clay and mixing it with water until a 
mud is formed, which, when allowed to dry in the sun 
or by the fire, will crack open, making large fissures; 
and by pouring water the fissures will be enlarged, 
showing how, in the course of ages, the internal heat of 
the earth and the erosive action of water have dug these 
wonderful ditches. 

The latitude of a few prominent places should be 
fixed in the mind. The following is a good exercise for 
this purpose: The teacher, taking a globe or map of 
the world, and selecting a certain parallel, say 40°, 
says: ''I find on or near this parallel Columbus, O., 
Philadelphia, Pa., Rome, Italy," etc. Then, selecting 
another, say 30°, he says: "I find on this New Orleans, 
La., St. Augustine, Fla., etc. What is the latitude of 
Philadelphia, of New Orleans, of Rome.^" etc. Then, 
selecting another parallel, he adds a few more places 
and asks questions promiscuously, as before, the pupils 
answering in concert. In this way a short drill 
occasionally will fix the latitude of the most prominent 
places in the world in the pupil's memory. Other 
places may be compared with them. For example, if 
one wishes to know the latitude of Mobile, Ala., he has 
only to remember that it is a little further north than 
New Orleans, and therefore near 30°. About ten years 



l62 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

ago I participated in a drill of this kind at a teachers' 
institute in which T. W. Harvey was instructor, and I 
do not think I shall ever forget the latitude of a 
number of places I there learned in a few minutes' 
drill. The teacher who is alive to his work will find 
many such expedients as I have here given, and will 
need* no further suggestions from me in regard to 
teaching geography. 

ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE 

Anatomy, teaching the structure of our bodies; 
physiology, the functions of the various organs; and 
hygiene, the application of this knowledge to the 
maintaining of a sound mind in a sound body, are sub- 
jects usually included under the term physiology, and 
are required by law, in many of the states, to be 
taught in common schools, or rather the teacher is re- 
quired to be prepared to teach them. It is eminently 
proper that this subject should be taught in country 
schools. 

Notwithstanding the fact that an out-door life of 
labor is more conducive to health and longevity than 
a sedentary in-door life, country people need the 
knowledge, which, if properly applied, will conserve 
their health and bodily vigor. Farmers do not always 
obey the laws of health in regard to diet and exercise; 
and farmers' children need instruction on this point as 
well as in regard to keeping accounts or any other 
branch taught in schools. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 163 

The teacher will find that the same methods of 
teaching which are applicable in geography, grammar 
and history can be successfully applied in this branch. 
The topic method should prevail, and pupils should be 
encouraged to outline and classify the subjects treated in 
the text book. A class can be, perhaps, more success- 
fully conducted if each pupil has a different author in 
his hands than if all have the same. The truly alive 
teacher will find no difficulty in presenting the subject 
and conducting a recitation, but questions of more 
importance are these: What parts shall be studied, and 
where shall the class commence.'* The subject is too 
deep to be studied in detail by pupils of a country 
school. Only the more important general principles 
should be taught, and these well impressed upon their 
minds. The following are some of the points which 
the teacher should select and the order in which they 
should be presented: 

I. GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF THE BODY 

I . Bones 

The teacher may let the class make an outline of the 
bones, naming every bone in the body under the main 
divisions of head, trunk and extremities, then proceed 
to learn the names of a few of the more important bones 
first; those of less importance may be learned in- 
cidentally by reviews and class drills. Next he may 
give a lesson or two on the structure and use of the 
bones, and their importance in a hygienic sense, as, for 



164 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

example, the importance of recognizing the fact that 
children's bones are softer and contain less mineral 
matter, and the bOnes of old persons are in the opposite 
conditions; and make the application as regards man- 
aging children to prevent bow legs, spinal deformities, 
etc., and care to prevent accidents causing fracture in 
elderly persons. Three or four lessons will thus bring 
out all the more important matters relating to the 
bones. By frequent reviews, after the pupil has ad- 
vanced to other subjects, these important facts will be 
fixed in their memories and seen in their relations to 
other facts of the science. Teachers will proceed 
according to the intellectual caliber of the pupils. If 
they are capable of grasping the more abstruse parts, 
they may gradually be led to them; if not, only what 
they can comprehend should be taught, and that well. 

2. Muscles 

The teacher may make outlines as with the bones, 
naming those muscles usually given in school text 
books, and memorizing a few of the more important. 
He may give hints in regard to the outline, suggesting 
that the structure, arrangement, kinds and use of 
muscles form a part of the outline. Several lessons 
are then to be made on these points. 

3. The Skin 

A lesson should be given on this subject, discussing 
its structure and use, including hair and nails, mucous 
membrane and teeth, the three latter being modifica- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 165 

tions of the epidermis, or outer skin. The functions of 
the skin will be better understood after the subjects of 
respiration, digestion and circulation are studied. 

The whole subject of the framework of the body may 
now be reviewed by outlines and general questions and 
discussions. 

II. VITAL PROCESSES 

1 . Circitlation 

Outline organs, as arteries, veins, capillaries, heart, 
lymphatics, with a discussion of the processes and 
results. Drill particularly in tracing the course of the 
blood in the round of the circulation. Draw diagram 
on blackboard to illustrate. 

2. Respiration 

Outline and discuss organs, as: trachea, bronchial 
tubes, lungs, air cells, capillaries, with processes and 
results, as: elimination of impurities and production of 
pure blood for vital purposes. Show the relation be- 
tween the lungs and skin in the processes of excretion. 
Explain the philosophy of "taking cold" and the neces- 
sity of good ventilation. 

3. Digestion 

The teacher may make outlines of the organs of 
digestion, including teeth, tongue, salivary glands, 
oesophagus, stomach, intestinal canal, pancreas and 
liver. He may describe these parts in a general man- 
ner, and next outline and describe the processes of 



l66 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

digestion ; as mastication, insalivation, deglutition, chy- 
mification, chylification, with the fluids necessary to 
perform these processes, as sahva, gastric juice, bile 
and pancreatic fluid. Tell what processes are mechan- 
ical and what chemico-vital. A number of lessons 
should be made of the subject of digestion, as it is of 
great importance. Give a lesson on the hygiene of 
digestion in relation to manner and matter of diet. 

Review the whole subject of vital processes, and dwell 
on the hygiene of digestion. A general review from 
the beginning may now be given, asking questions 
which will make pupils think and reason ; and drill on 
the more important parts to fix them in the memory. 

III. NERVOUS SYSTEM 

The structure, functions and hygiene of the nervous 
system should be studied by outlines, making the grand 
divisions of cerebro-spinal and sympathetic systems, 
also bringing in the terms sensory and motor nerves. 

IV. THE SPECIAL SENSES 

The eye and ear should be studied in considerable 
detail, paying particular attention to the hygiene of 
these organs. A little knowledge of the sciences of 
optics and acoustics would be of benefit to the teacher. 
Let him study these subjects in some work on natural 
philosophy, and he will be better able to explain the 
functions of these organs. 

If the class is capable of going farther during one 
term, there are many other points which may be taken 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 167 

up and discussed ; but first let a thorough investigation 
of the points I have noted be made. I insist on frequent 
reviews. The teacher, at least, should have more than 
one text book, and it would be well if the class had 
different authors also. There are some very good text 
books on the subject designed for common schools. 
Among them may be mentioned Steele's and Cutter's. 
Some of the review questions in ''Steele's Fourteen 
Weeks" are valuable aids to the teacher. If his class 
has not that book, the teacher may use some of those 
questions by writing them on the board for review 
lessons. He should use all possible aids in illustrating 
the anatomy of important organs. It is possible to 
procure specimens from animals which will illustrate 
many points in the human system. The eye of a hog 
is about the same in size and structure as the human 
eye, and specimens should be procured and dissected 
before the class. If one is boiled it will bear dissection 
better, but it should be shown also in a natural state. 
The larynx of a hog will also illustrate the human 
larynx, and give a much clearer idea than pictures or 
models. In fact nearly all the internal organs of the 
hog are similar in size and appearance to those of the 
human being. The heart, lungs and stomach, even, of 
a hog may be exhibited to illustrate these parts in the 
human body. Bones of animals may be procured and 
sawn across, to show the structure. Five cents' worth 
of sulphuric acid, to be had at any drug store, will, if 
diluted, dissolve the earthy parts of bone, leaving the 
animal parts intact. A bone may be burned in the 



1 68 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Stove, destroying the animal part and leaving the earthy 
part. 

ALGEBRA 
AND THE HIGHER MATHEMATICS 

The science of algebra is taught regularly in many 
of our country schools; and some portions of the higher 
mathematics, as geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, 
etc., should be taught incidentally in connection with 
other branches and occasionally by regular lessons, 
although without using a regular text book. 

Algebra is a method of solving mathematical prob- 
lems and representing quantities by means of symbols. 
It is an indispensable aid in all the higher mathematical 
branches. It is sometimes called General Arithmetic, 
and as an aid to arithmetic it is of great value. It 
should be studied before arithmetic is finished. It 
frequently happens that the teacher finds an example 
in arithmetic which will at first puzzle him ; and very 
often a knowledge of algebra will help him out of the 
difficulty. He may solve the example by algebra, and 
from this get an arithmetical solution. As merely an 
aid to the teacher, even if he is never required to teach 
it, it is valuable. 

It will appear evident that algebra should be taught 
in very much the same manner as arithmetic. I will 
therefore only offer a few suggestions : 

There are a certain number of definitions which must 
be learned before much progress can be made, but I 
would not advise a study of them alone. The teacher 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 169 

should first develop the algebraic idea of representing 
quantities by symbols. Take, for example, the sum of 
24 and 32. Instead of adding the numbers, as in 
arithmetic, you will say: ''We will represent the num- 
ber 24 by a, and the number 32 by b, and the operation 
will then stand a+br Some of the simple examples 
in arithmetic should be presented and solved algebra- 
ically. For instance, such problems as the followino-- 

"A travels a certain distance one day and twice as 
far the next. In the two days he travels 36 miles; how 
far does he travel each day.?" 

A number of such examples should be solved by the 
pupils, before definitions should be learned. A few 
definitions only are necessary at first; the others are to 
be learned as the necessity arises for their use. 

Numerous examples, like the following, may be given 
while the pupil is learning the necessary definitions: 

''What is the value of c + d—b, c being equal to 5, d 
to 10 and b to 3?" 

As soon as the pupil is somewhat familiar with 
algebraic forms of expression, the operations of addi- 
tion, subtraction, multiplication and division of alge- 
braic quantities should be taught, giving numerous 
examples for practice, and requiring pupils to be par- 
ticular in the use of signs. 

Be sure that all pupils have the proper conception of 
adding and subtracting algebraic quantities, and of the 
idea that letters may represent any quantity. With 
these facts well impressed and clearly understood, 
there will be no difficulty in conducting a class success- 



lyO BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

fully through any text book on the science, if the 
teacher has profited by the hints on teaching arithmetic. 

I have already spoken of some of the applications of 
the higher mathematics, in the chapter on Arithmetic. 
With advanced pupils in algebra or arithmetic, a slight 
knowledge of geometry and trigonometry may also be 
taught, if the teacher has prepared himself by the study 
of these branches. For example, even very young 
pupils can be taught the meaning of many geometrical 
terms, as : angle, plane, the different kinds of triangles, 
perpendicular, diagonal, parallel lines, parts of a circle, 
chords, polygons, prisms, etc. ; and advanced pupils in 
country schools should certainly be made familiar with 
these terms. Some of the simpler propositions may be 
demonstrated, or at least taught as facts. The blocks 
before spoken of (see p. 45), and which should be in 
every school room, will aid in familiarizing pupils with 
geometrical terms. The process of finding distances 
by similar triangles, and some other parts of trigo- 
nometry, may be taught. Schoolboys are sometimes 
curious to know how astronomers can tell the distance 
of the sun from the earth. This may be made plain to 
them by a simple calculation. Many of the facts of 
mathematical geography may also be made plainer by a 
knowledge of geometrical forms and principles. 

Teachers should not be bound within the narrow 
limits of the text book which the class is using; but 
wherever they can fix a fact or draw out a demonstration 
in any useful line of investigation, they should do so, 
not wasting time in trying to demonstrate what the 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I7I 

pupils are not old enough, or have not the intellectual 
power to understand ; and above all things they should 
not try to demonstrate anything they do not under- 
stand. If asked a question, or to explain something of 
which they are ignorant, they should not pretend to 
know nor put off with an excuse, but frankly ac- 
knowledge ignorance; then study on that point until 
it is mastered, if it is possible. 

THE NATURAL SCIENCES 

Under this head I wish to discuss the teaching of 
botany, geology, natural philosophy, chemistry and 
zoology in country schools. I think I hear someone 
saying: ''What! do you propose that all these branches 
be taught in our common country schools.?" I answer: 
"Yes; not regularly, not necessarily with text books; 
but incidentally and occasionally, as a means of culture, 
and for the purpose of keeping up interest, enthusiasm, 
assisting in governing, and with the hope that some 
good seeds may be sown which will find proper soil and 
receive a start which may culminate in a future Agassiz 
or Linnaeus." 

"But teachers are not generally prepared to teach 
such subjects. They have no knowledge of them them- 
selves." 

Then they should inform themselves. 

Children will often take a deep interest in collecting 
specimens and exhibit a strong desire to know some- 
thing about them. There is much difference in neigh- 



172 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

borhoods in this respect. There are some suburban 
communities where anything of the kind would be 
looked upon as the utmost degree of foolishness, and 
the people would be ready to call the teacher who 
would attempt anything of the kind a lunatic. The 
teacher, then, must feel the public pulse, and beware 
how he carries innovations into the school room. 
Wherever anything of the kind is entirely new, the 
teacher must proceed with caution and make gradual 
advances, until he captures the fort. 

I. Let us see what the teacher may do in the line of 
botanical teaching. In the spring, summer or fall, he 
may procure a few leaves of different kinds, and either 
at general exercises, or during the five-minute intervals 
of rest, call the attention of the school to them. He 
may show that in one sense they are all alike, and in 
another all different; that is, they all have a midrib 
and branching veins. He may draw this fact out by 
asking questions. He may ask them in what respect 
they are all alike. They will probably say they are all 
green. Then he may ask them if any of them ever 
saw a leaf that was not green. They will probably 
answer, no. He may tell them that nearly all leaves 
are green, but that there are some leaves otherwise 
colored, or partly so. Tell them to ask their parents if 
they ever saw a leaf that was not green when young 
and growing. He may call for a report the next day. 
He may ask them in what respect the leaves are dif- 
ferent. They will answer at once that they are of 
different shapes. He may now close the exercise for 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I 73 

this time by telling them that to-morrow he wants to 
see how many different shaped leaves each one can 
bring. He may make a collection of leaves, and dry 
them by laying between folds of paper. If pupils take 
an interest in making a collection (which I am sure 
they will, many of them, at least) he may give a num- 
ber of lessons on leaves, classifying them according to 
their shape. An outline may be written on the black- 
board; and though it will bring in some new words 
with which the pupils are not familiar, they are not 
difificult of comprehension when explained; besides, 
teachers need not use the technical term when a com- 
mon word will answer. The words of the outline can 
be used as a spelling lesson for the next day. I give 
below a specimen of an outline which may be made out 
on the subject of leaves : 



ves. 




I. Parts. 




I. Blade. 


I. 


Midrib. 


2. 


Veins. 


2. Foot stalk or leaf stalk. 


2. Forms. 




I. As 


to general outline. 


I. 


Linear. 


2. 


Lance-shaped. 


3- 
4. 
5- 


Oblong. 

Elliptical. 

Oval. 


6. 


Ovate. 


7- 


Orbicular or rotund. 


8. 


Oblanceolate. 



174 BEST 



r METHODS OF TEACHING 


9- 


Wedge-shaped. 


10. 


Spoon-shaped. 


II. 


Obovate. 


2. As to 


' base. 


I. 


Heart-shaped. 


2. 


Kidney-shaped. 


3- 


Eared. 


4. 


Arrow-shaped. 


5- 


Halberd-shaped. 


6. 


Shield-shaped. 


3. As to 


Apex. 


I. 


Pointed. 


2. 


Acute. 


3- 


Obtuse. 


4. 


Truncate. 


5- 


Retuse. 


6. 


Notched. 


7. 


Obcordate. 


8. 


Tooth-shaped. 


9. 


Mucronate. 


10. 


Bristle-pointed. 


4. As to 


particular outline. 


I. 


Entire, 


2. 


Saw-toothed. 


3. 


Toothed. 


4. 


Scalloped. 


5- 


Wavy. 


6. 


Sinuate. 


7. 


Cut or jagged. 


8. 


Lobed. 


9. 


Cleft. 


10. 


Parted. 


II. 


Divided. 


12. 


Simple. 


13. 


Compound. 




I. Pinnate. 




2. Palmate. 



Two weeks may be profitably and pleasantly spent 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 75 

studying the subject of leaves in this way, using no 
more than five minutes each day. It will be easy 
enough to collect specimens to represent nearly all the 
above forms of leaves; and as the pupils do this work 
at noons, recesses, mornings and evenings, but little 
time is consumed, much interest can be awakened, 
some knowledge imparted, and, without doubt, some 
dormant mind will be aroused and the perceptive fac- 
ulties cultivated. 

In winter, a collection of the different kinds of wood 
may be made by the pupils. This may be made very 
interesting. The teacher should specify the size and 
shape of the blocks. They should be cut so as to 
show the grain of the wood, both longitudinally and 
transversely, with one side and one end planed or 
polished. They should then be correctly and plainly 
labeled and kept as a part of the property of the 
school. Those kinds which are natives of the county 
should be so designated, and those which are foreign. 
In this way a complete collection of all the native 
woods of the locality and many foreign species may be 
made, and will be a collection of value when complete. 
The teacher may give some very interesting lectures 
on the uses, strength, etc., of woods. The pupils may 
be asked to name some of the uses of wood, what kinds 
of wood are valuable for certain purposes, etc. The 
teacher may procure specimens of foreign woods, as 
lignum-vitae, logwood, ebony, etc., and speak of their 
uses in the arts and their value in a commercial sense. 

There is not a locality in the United States where 



176 BEST METHODS OF TEACHIN'G 

such exercises as the above can not be made practical, 
a statement which can not be made in regard to all 
subjects. The live teacher may find other practical 
and profitable exercises touching the science of botany, 
but these are sufficient as hints. 

2. In many localities geology may be made a prof- 
itable study, and a collection of specimens of fossils 
and minerals be made. There are localities where 
fossils are numerous, and there are but few places 
where there are not different kinds of rocks. A col- 
lection may be commenced and extended as far as 
possible, even if the locality is poor in specimens. The 
teacher should endeavor to inform himself on the sub- 
ject of geology, that he may be able to answer the 
numerous queries which may be put to him in regard 
to rocks, minerals and fossils. Interesting short lec- 
tures may be given upon rocks, ores, fossils, etc. Let 
the teacher prepare himself by reading and study for a 
short talk about some of these subjects. I have not 
space to suggest what he may say, but can only, in a 
o:eneral wav, hint that he should endeavor to make 
these talks interesting, by talking about that in which 
the pupils seem to take an interest. The grand object 
is to wake up mind. When a thirst for knowledge is 
once induced, it is easy to supply the demand. By a 
few judicious questions and statements, the teacher will 
find out what he can talk about with the greatest 
degree of success. He should, if possible, procure 
specimens of the different kinds of coal, of iron, lead, 
zinc and copper ores, of gold and silver-bearing quartz, 



IX COUNTRY SCHOOLS I 77 

of granite, marble, sand-stone, chalk, slate, etc. In 
localities where there are no such things, they will be 
a source of interest to the whole school and to geog- 
raphy classes in particular. A geological collection of 
such representative specimens should form a part of 
the teacher's stock in trade. He may procure them in 
his travels and through the medium of friends and by 
exchange with others interested in the same subjects. 
3. Some very interesting experiments in natural 
philosophy and chemistry may be performed by the 
teacher, and the principles made plain to pupils. In 
searching a work on these subjects he will find many 
experiments described which, with a little modification, 
he may perform with little or no cost for apparatus 
or material. Much of the apparatus for performing 
experiments in natural philosophy and chemistry may 
be de\*ised by any teacher who has ordinary ingenuity. 
These subjects will not, perhaps, be so well adapted to 
the whole school as botany and geolog}-; but with 
classes in physiology and advanced geography, many 
experiments may be performed and principles illus- 
trated which will prove of great use in widening their 
field of knowledge and stimulating them to independent 
investigation and research. I remember, when quite a 
small boy, I read ''Parker's Philosophy" and performed 
several of the experiments there described without ever 
consulting anyone. I found a crooked stem of a poke- 
weed, and pushing out the pith, made a siphon, and got 
a scolding for running the water out of my mother's 
rainwater barrel. Boys frequently exhibit such tenden- 



178 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

cies at a very early age. A horse-shoe magnet may be 
purchased for a few cents, and many wonderful ex- 
periments performed with it, illustrating the properties 
of that mysterious agent, electricity. 

If some common bituminous coal is reduced to a 
powder and heated in the bowl of a clay tobacco pipe, 
by covering with moistened clay, the gas which is devel- 
oped may be burned at the end of the pipe stem. It is 
the common illuminating gas which lights our cities. 

If a little lump of green vitriol is dropped into a glass 
of clear water it will dissolve, and the solution will be 
clear. 

Now, if a solution of tannic acid is made, either by 
dropping a very small quantity into another glass of 
water, or a few drops of tea from oak bark are added 
to the water, and the contents of one glass are mixed 
with the contents of the other, the two previously clear 
solutions will turn instantly black as ink. Here is an 
illustration of a chemical change. I will give another 
just as simple: A small particle of starch may be 
dropped in a glass of hot water. Into another glass, a 
drop of tincture of iodine may be put. The clear 
. liquids, when mixed, will assume a beautiful blue color. 
Here is one of a different character: A teaspoonful of 
chlorate of potash may be mixed with a similar 
quantity of sugar; it may be laid on a board and a 
single drop of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) let fall upon 
it. The mass will take fire and burn with a beautiful 
white flame and with great rapidity. A volcano may 
be illustrated with this material: A pile of earth may 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 79 

be raised on a wide board, and in the center a little of 
this material may be placed in paper, arranging a paper 
tube so as to reach the apex of the volcano and com- 
municate with the material inside. A drop of the acid 
may now fall through this tube, and instantly the 
volcano will have an eruption, belching forth fire and 
smoke. Although the teacher may not be able to 
explain the exact nature of these chemical changes, the 
purpose is served as well. It is only necessary to 
show that a new and different substance is produced 
by a chemical reaction. The pupil may be referred to 
the process of making soap from fats and alkalies, as an 
illustration of a chemical change producing a new sub- 
stance. 

4. A few words in regard to the teaching of natural 
history in the country school. Here is a wide field for 
youth to investigate; but the country teacher may not 
find it so available as the foregoing sciences. Speci- 
mens can not always be collected, except in the depart- 
ment of insects. If any teacher's taste inclines in that 
direction, perhaps he may make this branch a profit- 
able one. Children love to hear and read about animals. 
Stories of animal sagacity may be related, and questions 
asked about the animals of different countries, their 
habits, uses, etc. Pupils may be told, for example, of 
the reindeer, an animal which furnishes food, drink, 
clothing, shelter and implements for a certain class of 
people; of some of the articles of commerce which are 
produced from animals, as ivory, bone, whalebone, oil, 
leather, horn, glue, furs, wool, feathers, etc. ; of the 



I So BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

animals peculiar to different parts of the world, etc. 
Some of these points belong to geography, but may be 
taught to the whole school as general exercises. 

MANUAL, OR CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 

Industrial training has a much larger place in the 
curriculum of to-day than even its most enthusiastic 
teachers and other friends dared to hope for it a decade 
since. In New York, and most of the larger cities, 
cooking and sewing for the girls, and knife work, iron, 
wood and similar work for the boys, are taught as a part 
of the regular course; and teachers have to fit them- 
selves to the new demands of the situation. 

In country districts, all of this is not practicable; but 
some parts of the work that is done in the cities may 
be well done by the country teacher. Even if he has 
little or no knowledge of drawing, brush work, etc., as 
such, he may at least allow the brighter children to 
take them up for ''busy work" when the lessons for 
that day and the next are all prepared ; and he will find 
them good aids in the question of discipline. 

Water color paints, a few camel's hair brushes, some 
of the colored inks mentioned in the chapter on pen- 
manship, will be a source of grateful amusement and 
intelligent occupation to the younger ones, and of inspi- 
ration to the older ones. 

The teacher may bring, or ask those who wish to un- 
dertake the work, such plants, vegetables, or other 
things as can be boldly outlined with the brush; and 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS l8l 

it will be no small surprise as to what even the very 
youngest can accomplish by allowing this freedom of 
the hand. 

After a fair degree of resemblance to potatoes, 
bananas, apples, grapes, small squashes, leaves, flowers 
of a simple kind, etc., are completed, he may encourage 
the copying, with a brush, of a simple landscape, show- 
ing how the ''tones" are obtained by the number of 
times that the work is "washed" with the ink or paint. 
Very pretty black and white effects are so brought out, 
and by very young children. 

They may outline the school building, each other, in 
different poses, a bit of scenery that illustrates some- 
thing they have read, or a story that has been told 
them. They may sometimes select their own subjects, 
and sometimes be given one in which a little competi- 
tion will add to the interest. Anything, so that they 
may be encouraged to find out what their hands hold in 
store for them. 

Little ones, and some of the larger ones, will find 
both pleasure and profit in cutting figures from paper; 
and the skill developed by some will equal that of a fairly 
good artist with crayon or pencil. Pictures for a school 
scrap book may be carefully cut and pasted, after a 
little practice ; and it will be of great value in much of 
the class work. All will take hold of this. 

The teacher may show how to make conventional 
designs with both the cutting and drawing, and "acci- 
dentals" with the ink. The latter is done by putting a 
more or less liberal supply of ink on a sheet of drawing 



l82 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

paper (or common butchers' paper), and folding the 
paper at once, so as to produce a blot, which, repeated 
at regular intervals, makes an odd — and often pretty — 
figure, that could be obtained in no other way. A bit 
of tracing paper, placed over it, allows the child to get 
the outline, which is then cut out; and it is laid on his 
paper, at sections of regularly crossed lines, forming a 
pattern. I have seen leaves, butterflies, etc., developed 
in this way, that were afterwards used for group work, 
and were more than merely creditable, although done 
by children who had been in school less than one term. 
Once the possibilities of constructive work are appre- 
ciated, the teacher has opened a big door for many a 
child; and yet all this must be done discreetly, and not 
in a way to excite prejudice against the "paper tom- 
foolery," as one irate man designated it. Broad princi- 
ples are below it all; but it takes a broad mind to 
comprehend broad principles; and the way-wise teacher 
will strengthen his own hands by the judicious use of 
all ways and means with which to reach parents as well 
as pupils. 

MORALS AND MANNERS 

A GRAVE responsibility rests upon the teacher. He 
should do vastly more than the law requires of him or 
than his employers expect of him. Instructing children 
in the branches treated of in text books is not the only 
teaching that he should do. There is something higher 
and nobler for him to do. He must teach lessons in 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 1 83 

morals and manners, the substratum on which a free 
government rests. Let me here make an extract from 
Prof. Huxley's address before the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity : 

"Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a 
nation. The great issue about which hangs a true 
sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate is : What 
are you going to do with these things.? What is to be 
the end to which these are to be the means ? You are 
making a novel experiment in politics on the greatest 
scale which the world has yet seen. Forty millions at 
your first centenary! It is reasonably to be expected 
that at the second, these States will be occupied by two 
hundred millions of English speaking people, spread over 
an area as large as that of Europe, and with climates and 
interests as diverse as those of Spain and Scandinavia, 
England and Russia. You and your descendants have 
to ascertain whether this great mass will hold together 
under the form of a republic and the despotic reality 
of universal suffrage; whether state rights will hold out 
against centralization without separation; whether cen- 
tralization will get the better without actual or disguised 
monarchy; whether shifting corruption is better than a 
permanent bureaucracy; and as population thickens in 
your cities and the pressure of want is felt, the gaunt 
specter of pauperism will stalk among you and com- 
munism and socialism will claim to be heard. Truly, 
America has a great future before her; great in toil, in 
care and in responsibility ; great in true glory, if she be 
guided in wisdom and righteousness; great in shame if 



184 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

she fail. I can not understand why other nations should 
envy you, or be blind to the fact that it is for the 
highest interest of mankind that you should succeed; but 
the one condition of success^ your sole safeguard^ is the 
moral worth and intellectual clearness of tJie individ- 
ual citizen. Education cannot give these, but it may 
cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever 
station of society they are to be found ; and the uni- 
versities ought to be and may be the fortresses of the 
higher life of the nation." 

I would agree with Huxley in all but the last sen- 
tence. Education caji give moral worth and intellec- 
tual clearness ; and the common schools, and especially 
the country district schools, ''ought to be and may be 
the fortresses of the higher life of the nation." How 
many of our great men were educated in our country 
schools.'' Many received their first impulses in some 
log schoolhouse in the backwoods. The country school 
teacher has given an impetus to the intellectual devel- 
opment of many a statesman and man of worth to the 
nation. He has made many a man capable of casting 
an intelligent ballot; and has he not increased the moral 
worth of many a citizen of this great republic.-* Much 
more can he do, if guided by right motives and prompted 
to greater zeal by a true understanding of the responsi- 
bility of his position and a real love for the profession. 
Hear what one of our greatest statesmen, Daniel Web- 
ster, said about the common school : ' Many moral tales 
and instructive and well contrived fables, always so 
alluring to children, learned by heart in these schools, 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 185 

are still perfectly preserved in my memory. * * * In 
my opinion, the instruction communicated in the free 
schools of New England has a direct effect for good on 
the morals of youth. It represses vicious inclinations, 
it inspires love of character and it awakens honorable 
aspirations." 

The teacher should endeavor by every means in his 
power to instill into his pupils habits which will make 
them good citizens of a free republic. The following 
outline will indicate the order in which I propose a 
very brief notice of some of the points which teachers 
should take pains to teach, both by precept and 
example : 

1. Morals. 

1. Veracity. 

I. Avoid Deception. 

2. Honesty. 

I. Avoid Cheating. 

3. Industry. 

1. At- Study. 

2. At Work. 

4. Economy. 

1. Save Property. 

2. Save Time. 

5. Promptness and Regularity. 

1. Regular in Attendance. 

2. Prompt at Recitations. 

3. Prompt in the Affairs of Life. 

2. Manners. 

I. Politeness at Home and Abroad. 

1. To Strangers. 

2. To Teacher. 

3. To Companions. 



1 86 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

2. Respect. 

1. For Self. 

2. For Rights, Property and Persons of Others. 

3. Kindness. 

1. To Human Beings. 

2. To Animals. 

4. Generosity. 

1. In Yielding Rights and Privileges. 

2. In Giving and Sharing Property. 

5. Reverence. 

1. For God. 

2. For Parents. 

3. For Teachers. 

4. For Age. 

6. Purity of Speech, 

1. Avoid Profanity. 

2. Avoid Impure Language. 

I. MORALS. 

I . Veracity. — I need not enlarge on the necessity 
of inculcating in the young a sincere love of truth. 
Whenever possible, the teacher should point out the 
evil effects of lying and deception. Gossiping and tale- 
bearing are very nearly akin to lying. Children should 
be taught this, and discouraged in any tendency ex- 
hibited in this direction. Something has happened on 
the play-ground, and some one comes and tells the 
teacher. Here is an opportunity to speak about this 
matter. Children should be taught that when they are 
called upon individually for evidence in regard to 
offenses committed, they should respond with the 
''truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," 
but that a spirit of tattling and meddling should always 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS iSj 

be avoided. They should be taught that a person can 
act a He as well as speak it, and that all double dealing 
and deception should be abhorred. The teacher can 
teach much more by example. He should always be 
just what he appears to be, and make no promises 
which he does not intend to perform. Many teach 
deception by not performing what they promise. If it 
happens that he has made a promise which he is unable 
to redeem he should be quick to state his reasons, and 
frankly acknowledge an error if he makes one. 

2. Honesty. — I fear that in this free republic few 
men and women are strictly honest. I do not mean 
that they all steal; but humbugging and cheating are 
such commoji things that few are entirely innocent. 
I have, however, taught school where it was not safe 
to leave a pencil or knife on the table and leave the 
room; but because there was one thief in the school, 
I could not accuse the school of being dishonest. But 
children need cautioning about taking little things which 
they might not regard as stealing. They should be 
shown how taking an apple may lead to taking a knife, 
and this to something of more value, and so on until 
they may land in the penitentiary. I would not, how- 
ever, speak very often about stealing, certainly not at 
all unless something occurred to give occasion to speak 
about it, for it is never good to anticipate the commis- 
sion of a crime by making mention of it. I say an- 
ticipate it, for I believe that often the mere calling of a 
crime to mind will prompt its commission. I have not 
space here to discuss this fact, but it is a fact in human 



l88 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

nature. Cheating is sometimes practiced in games of 
childhood. The teacher should take pains to check the 
tendency at once, for a child who will cheat in a game 
is likely to cheat in business when a man. Honesty 
should be taught, not simply because it is the best 
policy, but because it is one of the noblest traits of 
human character. 

3. Industry. — I have classed industry as a moral 
trait, for no man can be a moral man and at the same 
time an idler. Industry lies at the foundation of individual 
and national life, co-ordinate with honesty and veracity. 
Habits of industry must be taught in school as well as 
in the family. The teacher can do much towards 
fostering this trait, by furnishing all with employment 
in the school room and by occasionally prompting the 
idly-inclined pupils. This prompting must not be done 
in a scolding manner, but pleasantly, by directing them 
towards an example to be solved, a point to be noticed 
in the lesson, a paragraph to be read over, a written 
exercise to be attended to, etc. Occasion should be 
taken to point out the benefits of industry in the world. 
In geography classes, when lessons are had on the pro- 
ductions of various countries, attention may be called to 
the fact that the wealth and beauty of a country depend 
on the industry of its inhabitants; the fine cities, build- 
ings, works of art, etc., are the results of industry. In 
general exercises in natural science, the uses of certain 
articles, as iron, wood, etc., should be shown to be the 
result of the industry of man. The teacher should 
show that these substances in a state of nature would 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 189 

be of little or no use to man; he may call attention to 
the fact that the farmers who are the most wealthy are 
generally so from industry and economy. These two 
traits can not, indeed, be separated. 

4. Economy. — I come, naturally, to speak of this ^ 
also as a moral trait. From the days when the prodi- 
gal son wasted his substance in riotous living, and was 
at last obliged to return to an economical parent for 
support, to the present day, those individuals who have 
practiced economy have stood foremost in the world's 
history as the wise ones who provide for the future by 
taking care of the present, and to whom the prodigal 
and wasteful must come at last begging. It is to be 
hoped that the financial depressions through which this 
country has passed will teach lessons of economy that 
will benefit the adults of the present generation at least. 
But the youth of our schools should receive instruction 
in this branch, that they may not have to learn by dear 
experience in the future what many of us are learning 
today. About every fifteen years there is a financial 
crash in this country, and it is caused mainly by the 
extravagance and wastefulness of the inhabitants. 

Pupils should be taught economy in the use of prop- 
erty and in the use of time. When books are heed- 
lessly torn or soiled, or school property destroyed, the 
teacher will have occasion to give a lesson of economy 
in the use of property. A program of study and 
recitation economizes time, and the pupils should be 
made to see this and be prompted to systematize their 
study that they may save time. Habits of economy 



190 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

thus impressed in youth will often have great effect on 
character in after life. Pupils trained to study by plan 
will be apt. to work and study by system when they 
enter the active arena of life. 

5. Promptness and Regularity. — Another moral 
trait which should be instilled into youth at an early 
age. Regular attendance at school should be shown as 
highly necessary to secure the benefits of school. The 
teacher should talk to parents on this subject, and show 
them that it would be to their own interest to send 
their children regularly to school. If they are to keep 
the children at home half the time, that time should 
be consecutively and not a day now and then. Train 
pupils to be prompt to come in when the bell rings, 
prompt to come to the recitation, prompt to answer 
when called upon to recite. Pupils who are in the 
habit of straggling when the bell rings should be re- 
minded of the fact, by being detained a few minutes 
after the others are dismissed. They can see the 
justice of this punishment, for if they persist in dis- 
turbing the order of the school by coming in late, and 
try to gain a few moments for play at the expense of 
the rest of the school, they should be compelled to 
make up this time while those who have been prompt 
are permitted to play. 

II. MANNERS 

It is often remarked that the youth of the present 
day are not so polite and do not show that respect for 
superiors which characterized the youth of the preceding 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I9I 

generation. ''It was not so when I was young," is an 
expression often upon the Ups of elderly persons. It is 
true, also, that the American people are lacking in these 
qualities more than the Old World inhabitants. This 
fact is owing to our free self-government, which fosters 
an independent spirit, the opposite of a fawning, cring- 
ing servility. While this independent spirit should not 
be crushed out, but rather encouraged, the youth should 
be taught good manners, which consist in treating fel- 
low beings as having equal rights to "life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness." (See p. 48.) 

1. Politeness. — The teacher will find frequent 
opportunity to give instruction on the duty of being 
polite to strangers, to teachers, and to companions. 
School children frequently insult, or in various ways 
act impudently towards, strangers who may happen to 
pass the schoolhouse during play hours. The teacher 
should try to check any such conduct at once, and take 
the opportunity to give a lecture on politeness. Pupils 
fail sometimes to speak in a respectful manner to the 
teacher or to each other. The teacher should call atten- 
tion to these points, and remind the pupil of his want 
of politeness. The teacher should always speak and 
act politely toward pupils wherever he may meet them, 
thus teaching by example. 

2. Respect. — He who has no respect for himself 
will have none for others. There is a kind of pride 
which everyone should possess. It is that pride which 
leads us to do unto others as we would have them do 
unto us. We should take pride in doing right, and have 



192 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

respect for ourselves by so conducting our manners as 
to give no offense to others. A respect for the rights, 
property and person of others is but obeying the Golden 
Rule, as well as obeying the laws of our land. Children 
should be taught by example and precept that others 
have rights which they should be bound to respect. 
School and other public property is too frequently the 
object of wanton destruction, or the subject for deface- 
ment with knives, pencils, etc. Will you find a school- 
house that has been built one year in all this country 
that does not bear the marks of a pencil or pocketknife 
to a greater or less extent.? Children should be taught 
that the property belongs to their parents, to everyone 
in the district, and that they have no more right to de- 
face or destroy it than if it were their neighbor's. 
They should be made acquainted with the laws of the 
state in regard to such defilement. Something must 
be done to check this spirit of vandalism, which seems 
to be gaining ground in this country; and I know 
of no better place to begin educating the people to 
better respect public property than in the district 
school. 

3. Kindness. — Boys are sometimes cruel to their 
playmates, especially to those younger and weaker than 
themselves. The teacher should not only see that no 
one under his charge is imposed upon, but he should 
take such opportunities to inculcate a spirit of kindness 
towards humanity and towards the brute creation as 
well. He must teach that kindness is a wonderful 
power ; that it will conquer where fear will not ; and 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I93 

show what influence may be gained over others, and 
over animals, by being kind to them. 

4. Generosity. — It is unnecessary to enlarge upon 
this head. Examples will be easily found upon which 
to teach a lesson of generosity. A number of individuals 
can not be placed together without its being necessary, 
for the general welfare, that certain rights, privileges, 
and property, be yielded from one person to others. 
This is absolutely necessary to the existence of the 
social state. Even animals which are in the habit of 
living together yield to each other certain privileges and 
share each other's food. 

5. Reverejice. — This is closely allied to respect. 
In fact, all the points in the outline are mutually depend- 
ent and blend into each other. But we should teach 
that there is a kind and benevolent Father who watches 
over us, and has the universe in charge, and who rules 
with justice and equity, but whose ways are sometimes 
to us mysterious; and that we. His children and subjects 
of His sovereign will, should reverence and obey Him. 
This is a quality of true manners, to reverence an 
aknowledged superior power. Our earthly parents also 
claim our reverence. They who have watched over us 
from infancy, and provided for our future welfare, cer- 
tainly can claim a respect which amounts to reverence. 
The commandment, "Honor thy father and mother," if 
universally obeyed, would be a mighty factor in reform- 
ing the human race. As the teacher stands in loco 
parentis for the time being, he also demands a respect 
which may be called reverence. While the teacher 



194 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

should be on familiar terms with his pupils, he should 
ever maintain his dignity, and teach pupils that on ac- 
count of his position he demands a certain degree of 
reverence. A teacher will have but little control over 
pupils who have not this respect, and a respect which 
may be called reverence, unless he has it by fear; and 
he can teach but little who governs by fear. Age de- 
mands a sort of reverence from youth, so long, at least, 
as age is respectful. 

6. Pui^ity of Speech. — A gentleman may be known 
by his speech. The young of our day are, in many 
localities, very much addicted to the use of profanity. 
It is not strange, however; when they have examples 
on every hand, when the parents and companions of the 
child constantly use profane language, it is not strange 
that the child learns it. It is the teacher's duty to show 
him that it is wrong, that it is a violation of the moral 
code, as well as a gross violation of etiquette. The 
country is also full of slang; and our youth, from infancy, 
almost, speak in the language of slang. While it is 
true that there are some expressions, generally called 
slang, which are very forcible, and might be used 
occasionally to afford variety and emphasis to our 
language, the constant use of such expressions is but a 
sign of weakness; and they lose their force by being 
wrongly applied and too frequently used. 

It is of little use to punish pupils for swearing. In 
nine cases out of ten, the offender is only confirmed in 
his habit. As soon as he gets out of hearing of the 
teacher he will very likely swear for having been 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 195 

punished. His only care will thenceforth be, not to 
keep from swearing, but to swear when the teacher 
does not hear it. The better way is to talk to the 
school about the habit and try to persuade them to 
abandon it. The teacher may take five minutes some 
day, and when he has the attention of the whole school, 
talk to them in this manner: Boys, I have noticed you 
often when playing; and sometimes I have heard some 
of you swear and use language which, it seems to me, 
you would not like to repeat now if I were to ask you. 
I have no doubt that you hear somebody swear almost 
every day of your lives, and you have learned when you 
hardly knew you were learning it; and perhaps some of 
you may think it is not wrong because many men swear. 
Did you never think that men do wrong as well as boys, 
and if we would try to do what is right in the world it 
will not do to copy after men and do everything they 
do } Some men will steal horses and commit murder. 
Do you think it would be right for you to do so, because 
these men do ? It is very likely that these men learned 
to swear when they were small boys like some of you, 
and it became such a habit that it was almost impossible 
to break it off. Let me ask you to try and not be a 
slave to any habit. It is not hard to form habits now 
when you are young, and not very hard to break off bad 
habits, not half as hard as when you get older. Let me 
ask you to quit this habit just as soon as you can. You 
will forget and say bad words before you think ; but you 
must think and be on your guard. How many will try 
to keep from swearing or using bad language.? I mean 



196 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

those who have not done so as well as those who have. 
Hold up your hands, as many of you as will try to avoid 
it. Now that you have promised to try, I hope you will 
try; and I do not expect to hear very much bad 
language again. 

This kind of moral suasion will have a much more 
salutary effect than any kind of punishment could have. 

In concluding this chapter, let me say with Milton: 
Keep your pupils ''stirred up with high hopes of living 
to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God and 
famous through all ages." 

MODEL RECITATIONS 

ADVANCED GEOGRAPHY 

Note. — In the following model recitations in this book It is under- 
stood that the teacher has called upon the pupil whose name precedes 
the answer. The pupils raise their hands when wishing to criticise 
or report additional matter and when a question is put to the class as 
a whole. The teacher selects the pupil whom he wishes shall answer 
the question and calls him by name. Snapping fingers to attract the 
teacher's attention should not be allowed. The most backward pupils 
should be most frequently called upon. The brighter ones will raise 
their hands the most frequently and get the benefit of the recitation 
without special effort on the part of the teacher. 

Subject of the lesson — State of Iowa. 

[Pupils take their places at the recitation seats at call 
of teacher or tap of bell.] 

Teacher — John, can you step to the blackboard and 
draw an outline map of Iowa, marking the principal 
points of interest.? 

Note. — Each pupil has a copy of the outline on p. 154. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 197 

John — I will try, sir. 

Teacher — Henry, you may tell us what you can 
about the position of Iowa. 

Henry — It lies between Latitude 40%° and 43%'' 
north and Longitude, 13° and 20° west from Washing- 
ton. It is bounded on the north by Minnesota, on the 
east by Illinois, on the south by Missouri, and on the 
west by Nebraska. 

[Several hands raised.] 

Teacher — Robert. 

Robert — It is bounded on the west by South Da- 
kota also. 

Teacher — Very good. Are there any other criti- 
cisms or additions to what has been said on this point .-* 
[Mary's hand is raised.] What is it, Mary.? 

Mary — It lies between the great rivers, the Missis- 
sippi and Missouri. 

Teacher — Very good. That fact, however, will 
come out under the topic, rivers. Katy, you may tell 
us something about its size. 

Katy — Its area is 55,045 square miles. 

Teacher — That is correct, but you could not prob- 
ably remember that number very long. Try and re- 
member the round number, 55,000. But let us com- 
pare it with other states and countries. [Hands raised.] 
George. 

George — Georgia, Florida and Michigan are each a 
little larger. It is larger than either New York or 
Pennsylvania. 

[Teacher calls on William, whose hand is raised.] 



198 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

William — It is very nearly the size of Illinois, and 
more than forty times as large as Rhode Island, the 
smallest state, and one fifth as large as Texas, the 
largest state. 

[Henry is called upon.] Henry — It is larger than 
either Ireland or Scotland and somewhat near the size 
of England. 

Teacher — Carrie, describe the surface of Iowa. 

Carrie — There are no mountains or very high hills. 
There are bluffs along the streams. It is called a 
Prairie State, but there is a considerable amount of tim- 
ber on the banks of the streams. It has a general 
slope to the south. 

Teacher — Anything further under this head.? 

John — There are two minor drainage slopes, one 
southeastward to the Mississippi, the other southwest- 
ward to the Missouri. 

Teacher — Class, how can you tell by looking at a 
map in what direction the land slopes.? 

Mary — By the way the rivers run. They always 
run down hill. 

Teacher — What is the ridge of land from which the 
water flows in opposite directions called ? 

Many voices — A water shed. 

Teacher — James, what do you Know of the rivers 
of Iowa.? 

James — The Mississippi River forms its eastern 
boundary and the Missouri its western. The principal 
rivers in the interior of the State are the Des Moines, 
Skunk, Iowa and Cedar Rivers, which run towards the 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS I99 

southeast and empty into the Mississippi. The Little 
Sioux and Nishnabotany run southwest and empty into 
■ the Missouri. 

Teacher — Albert, what of the lakes.? 

Albert — There are no large lakes, but numerous 
small ones in the northern part. The largest is Spirit 
Lake, containing about twelve square miles. 

Henry — The Walled Lakes are great curiosities. 
There is an embankment of earth all around them as 
though thrown up by men. 

Teacher — Can anyone explain this phenomenon.? 
[No answer.] I will leave this point until to-morrow. 
I want each one to try and find an explanation. Ask 
your parents, or, perhaps, some of you have a large atlas 
of Iowa, which will explain it. There is a natural cause 
for this singular phenomenon and I want you to find it 
out. We will pass to the next topic. 

This is sufficient to illustrate the manner of conduct- 
ing a recitation in advanced geography. The teacher 
who cannot get up enthusiasm in his class in this way 
must try some other. The remainder of the recitation 
will be similar to the foregoing. If the time will not 
permit the full discussion of one state, make two or 
more lessons of it. The map drawn by the pupil sent 
to the board should be criticised before the close of the 
recitation ; and the necessary talk about the next lesson 
should not be neglected. The teacher may impart some 
information not found in the text books concerning 
the next lesson, give instructions as to the manner of 
study, etc., etc. When the next recitation is called, 



200 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

the first step should be a review of the last lesson and 
to call up any points left over for investigation. 

PRIMARY GEOGRAPHY 

I here give a report of a lesson to a class just begin- 
ning the study. The teacher steps to the board and 
draws a straight line, saying: Children, we are now go- 
ing to commence the study of geography. The word 
means a description of the surface of the earth. We live 
on the earth, and geography describes what we may see 
on its surface or outside. We are going to begin right 
at home. Suppose I should want to write to one of 
my friends in Ohio and tell him that I was teaching 
school and wanted to describe to him just what kind of 
a school room I had and how everything was arranged 
in it. How could I best make it plain to him.^ Hands 
up, now, all who can answer. 

John — You could make a picture of the schoolhouse 
and send it to him. 

Teacher — Yes, that would show it plainly ; but I 
can not draw well enough to make a picture; and if I 
could, it would take a good deal of time. Can you 
think of no other way.? I will tell you. I can draw a 
map of this school room, so that our friend in Ohio can 
see exactly how we are situated here. First, we must 
know something about direction. Who can tell me in 
what direction I am pointing (pointing to the north). 
Several voices — North. How do you know that is 
north. (No answer). Well, where does the sun rise.? 
Mary. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 20I 

Mary — In the east. 

Teacher — And where does the sun set? 

Mary — In the west. 

Teacher — Very well. If you stand with your right 
hand pointing to the east and your left hand pointing 
to the west, your face will be to the north and your 
back, where, class. -* 

Several voices — To the south. 

Teacher — Well, now you know the directions. On 
a map we always represent the top part as north and 
the bottom will be what, of course, then, class.? South. 

Teacher — And the right hand will be where t East. 
And the left.-* West. This line, I have drawn on the 
board will represent the north and this (drawing 
another line parallel to it), the south, and these lines 
(connecting the two) will represent east and west. 
Now we have shown the north, south, east and west 
sides of our school room by straight lines. Who will 
step to the board and make a dot to represent the right 
place for the stove.'* (A pupil steps up and makes a 
mark). Is that right, class.'* (Hands go up). John. 

John — I think it should be nearer the south. 

Teacher — Yes (pupil changes it), now it is about 
right. 

In this manner give each one of the class an oppor- 
tunity to mark some point on the map. 

Teacher — Now, children, we have a map of the 
school room. It is much easier m?.de than a picture 
and it shows where everything is placed. We could 
draw a map of the schoolhouse yard in the same way 



202 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

and tomorrow we will do so. We could also draw the 
map of a man's farm, or of the school district which is 
made up of a number of farms, or of the township 
which is made up of a number of districts, and so on 
to the county and state. Here we have maps in our 
books of the states. These crooked lines represent 
rivers, or creeks, these dots, towns and cities. The 
states are colored differently, so as to make them ap- 
pear plainer on paper. We could not make a picture 
of anything so large as a county or state. We can 
only draw a picture of what we can see with the eye 
by standing in one place. But by traveling we know 
that this is a very large earth on which we live. We 
can see only a small part at one time. Now, no one 
man has traveled enough to see everything; but many 
different men have traveled, many different ones have 
written about what they have seen, and drawn maps 
of small portions and measured distances; and by 
putting all these together we get a complete description 
of the earth and are able to represent it on papjer by 
lines and dots and colors. These representations we 
call maps, and the description of places and of things 
on the surface of the earth is called geography. Now, 
how many think they can tell me to-morrow what 
geography is and what a map is.'* (Hands go up). 
Very well, I will ask you tomorrow. But I must now 
give you something for tomorrow's lesson. I will 
write some words on the board and I want you to go 
to your books and find the words and find out what 
they mean. The books will tell you. You will find 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 203 

them on page (here shows them the place) and I want 
you all to be able to tell me what these words mean. 
These words are : 

1 . Continent. 

2. Island. 

3. Peninsula. 

4. Cape. 

5. Isthmus. 

This will do for your lesson. Write these words on 
your slates as soon as you take your seats. If any do 
not understand what I mean, speak and I will explain 
further. 

U. S. HISTORY 

The first day the teacher has explained to the class 
his mode of teaching, and by reading with the class 
the first few pages of some school history, he has 
developed the following outline, and it is now on the 
blackboard. 

Discovery of America. 

1. Alleged Discovery by Northmen. 

2. Circumstances which led to the Discovery by 
Columbus. 

3. Nativity and Character of Columbus. 

4. Difficulties in the way. 

5. Ferdinand and Isabella. 

6. The Voyage. 

7. Land Discovered and Date. 

8. Other Voyages of Columbus. 
Q. Death of Columbus. 



204 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Teacher — Henry, what can you tell us about the 
first discovery of America? 

Henry — I could not find anything about the North- 
men in my book. It commences with Columbus. 
(Hands up). 

Teacher — Philip. 

Philip — The Northmen claimed to have discovered 
this country about the year looi. 

Teacher — Who were the Northmen ? 

Philip — They were the people who lived in Norway, 
Sweden and Iceland. 

Teacher — This question is not of great importance. 
It is very probable that these northern sea kings, as 
they were called, sailed westward and landed on the 
coast of North America ; but they made no permanent 
settlements, and the route was lost and the existence of 
this Continent forgotten. David, you may tell us what 
you can in regard to the second topic. 

David — Men had come to believe that the earth 
was a sphere and supposed that Asia extended east 
until it nearly reached the western extremities of 
Europe. The mariner's compass had been invented 
and men were enabled to make voyages out of the sight 
of land. Men had a great desire to find a nearer route 
to Asia, as India and China were celebrated for their 
great riches and trade had been carried on with them 
for many years. 

Teacher — Very good, David. Has anyone anything 
further to say on this point? 

George — I read somewhere that pieces of carved 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 205 

wood and some strange plants had been washed on the 
shores of Portugal, which led Columbus to think there 
was land beyond the waters. 

Joseph — And a canoe and the bodies of two men 
different from the people of Europe were washed on 
shore. 

Teacher — Yes, these are some of the principal cir- 
cumstances which led Columbus to attempt this won- 
derful work. James, you may take the next topic. 

James — Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in the 
year 1435. I cannot tell anything about his character. 
I suppose he must have been a great man. 

Teacher — Yes, Columbus was indeed a great man, 
for he accomplished a great work ; but what is necessary 
to make a man great.-* Suppose Columbus had said: 
**Well, I suppose there is a new route to the Indies to 
be discovered by sailing west, and it would be a great 
thing to accomplish; but I have no means, I can do 
nothing." Do you think this Continent would have ever 
been discovered by him ? It was energy and persever- 
ance which made Columbus a great man. He was not 
disheartened by difficulties, but worked away until his 
object was accomplished. But this brings us to the 
next topic, The Difficulties in the Way. Charles, you 
may enlighten us upon this point. 

Charles — Columbus was poor and had no means of 
his own. He applied to his own government and then 
to the King of Portugal and then to Spain but was met 
with a refusal each time. 

I will not carry this any further. The reader has 



206 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

some idea now of my manner of conducting a recitation. 
It is not to be supposed, of course, that the pupils will 
all answer so well as here represented ; and it must be 
held in mind that much is omitted. The remarks made 
by the teacher and the questions asked to draw out 
backward pupils, if all given here, would occupy too 
much space. When the teacher has thus gone through 
with the topic outline he should recapitulate the main 
points in concert or otherwise, and write on the black- 
board the principal date or dates. In this lesson there 
should be but one date used, 1492. 

Encourage pupils to tell what they know, in their 
own language. You can always tell when they are 
quoting the language of the text book. It is far better 
that they use their own language, though it be ungram- 
matical, hesitating and crude. You have the opportu- 
nity then to criticise and correct their language and 
thus incidentally cultivate their powers of expression. 

The story of Columbus is a most interesting one. It 
is much more important that the class spend consider- 
able time getting the interesting details of this subject, 
in order to fix the main facts and date, than to commit 
to memory the names and dates of all the discoverers 
and explorers from that time down to the settlement at 
Jamestown. Several lessons may be made on the out- 
line above, giving different pupils different topics each 
time to report upon. The next lesson to be outlined 
may be, Other Discoveries. Under this may be brought 
out the principal voyages and discoveries only, and will 
bring the subject down to the period of settlement. The 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 207 

pupils should write these topics on their slates ; or it 
would be well to have them write on paper, or in a 
blank book and preserve them for future use. 

ENGLISH GRAMMAR 

The outline on page 131 being on the board, the 
teacher and class discuss it somewhat as follows: 

Teacher — Mary, can you tell me what a noun is? 

Mary — A noun is a name. 

Teacher — Yes. Every noun is a name, and every 
name is a noun. All those words which are the names 
of objects which you can see, hear, feel, taste or smell, 
and all words which are names of qualities of objects, 
as goodness, sweetness, all names of anything you can 
think of, as peace, purity, love, joy, etc. Mary, what 
nouns in this sentence .-' "Riches take to themselves 
wings and fly away." 

Mary — Riches and wings. 

Teacher — Why .'* 

Mary — Because they are the names of something. 

Teacher — Now we have different kinds of nouns, and 
I have here arranged the different kinds in an outline 
that I may better fix them in your minds. I have made 
two classes, general and special; that is, all nouns are 
either common or proper, but then we sometimes have 
them arranged in special classes as : abstract, verbal, 
collective and class nouns. You have studied your les- 
sons in the book as I wished you do, and now who can 
tell me what a common noun is ? Carrie. 

Carrie — A common noun is a common name or a 



208 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

name common to a class of objects, as book, tree, 
house, etc. 

Teacher — Yes. When we say book, we do not 
mean any particular book, but the name applies to 
books as a class of objects. Class, is a horse a common 
noun.-* Yes. Why? Because it is a name common to 
a class of animals. 

The teacher will multiply such examples as these, as 
he thinks necessary. 

Teacher — James, what is a proper noun.-* 

James — A proper noun is the name of a particular 
individual or object, as John, New York, etc. 

Teacher — Yes. When I say John, I do not mean 
any boy or man, but one particular boy or man whose 
name is John. So, when I say New York, I do not mean 
any city, but that particular city which is named New 
York. I think you now understand the distinction be- 
tween common and proper nouns. But here is a point I 
wish you to bear in mind, that proper nouns are always 
written with a capital letter, and never in any other way. 
If you see the name of a town or person spelled with- 
out a capital, anywhere, you may know it is a mistake, 
it makes no difference who wrote it. I want you to re- 
member this. Thousands of people make such mis- 
takes every day. Never make this mistake. If you 
learn nothing else here to-day, remember this; and if 
you put it into practice always, it may be worth hun- 
dreds of dollars to you. You seem surprised, but let 
me explain. Suppose I had charge of a large school 
where there were several teachers employed and I 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 209 

wanted to hire a man to teach in my school. Suppose 
I should get a letter from a man making application for 
a school and he should address the envelope in the way 
I here write it on the board: danville^ Indiana. Do 
you suppose I would read the letter any further? He 
may be an intelligent man and a good teacher in many 
respects, but I would not think so from the letter, and I 
would not waste further time trying to find out. In 
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred I would save time, by 
not even opening his letter. So in all kinds of business 
such little matters as these go a great way. Let me 
urge you to take particular pains to spell and capitalize 
properly, if you do not make such great advances in 
other things. There are other rules for the use of capi- 
tals, but this is one of great importance, and I wish to 
impress it on your minds. 

In a similar manner let the remainder of the outline 
be discussed. The teacher need not talk so much as 
here represented ; but the pupils should be encouraged 
to criticise, ask questions, and give definitions. I have 
here given a rather lengthy talk for the teacher in order 
to illustrate the manner in which it is necessary, some- 
times, to talk to a class. 

ADVANCED ARITHMETIC 

The class is using Arithmetic. Each pupil is 

going as fast as he can. It is impossible to keep a class 
together in a country school at times, owing to ir- 
regularity of attendance. The pupils are working in 
various parts of Profit and Loss. 



2IO BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

Teacher — On page 248, the 8th example, Charles; 
the 7th, James. On page 249, the 7th, Mary; the 8th, 
William; the 9th, Lucy. On page 250, Henry, the 
loth. Place your examples on the board as rapidly as 
possible. Let us see how neat you can make your 
work. 

While this section is at the blackboard the teacher 
gives the remainder of the class to whom he has not 
assigned examples, an oral drill, askmg questions on the 
principles involved and making inquiries of each pupil 
as to progress, or explaining some point left over from 
last lesson. 

By this time James is ready to explain his example. 

James — Example 8, p. 248. **A bought 40 bales of 
cotton, at ^40 each, and sold it at a profit of ^704; 
what per cent, did he make.'*" 

Operation : 

$^0 704 176 44 

40 — =: =r .44 = 44 per cent. 

1600 400 100 

$1600 

Explanation : If one bale of cotton cost $40, 40 bales 
will cost 40 times ^40 which are $1600. He sold it for 
1^704 more than it cost him. $704 '^^^-^^^^ of $1600; there- 
fore he gained -{^-^-^ of what it cost. ^'Wo — iVo — 44 
per cent. 

Teacher — What other way could this have been 
solved, class.'* 

Henry — Divide ^704 by ^1600 and express the 
quotient in decimal hundredths. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 2 I I 

Teacher — The principle is just the same, but James' 
method is much plainer. He has given an analysis of 
the example. Lucy may explain next. 

Lucy — Example 9th, p. 249. "By selling tea at 
$1.19 per pound, I lost 15 per cent.; what was the cost 
price per K) ? 

Operation : 

1. 00 . 85 I 1. 1900 I 1.40 
•15 85 



5 340 

340 



Explajtatioii : Here 1 5 per cent, is 1 5 cents on the 
dollar, so what cost me ^i.oo if I lose 15 cts., I must 
sell for ^1.00 — ^.15 which is ^.85, and as often as ^.85 
is contained in the selling price $1.19, so many times is 
$1.00 contained in the cost price. $1.19-^.85 = 1.40 
=^1.40. 

When mistakes are made either in tHe expression on 
the board or in the explanation, the teacher should call 
out criticisms from the class and make such comments 
himself as he may deem necessary. 

Teacher — Observe, class, that the per cent, of gain 
or loss is always estimated on the cost and never on the 
selling price. This is a very simple principle, if you will 
just think that you can not tell whether you are going 
to gain or lose on any article which you are going to sell 
unless you know what it cost you. If you sell for less 



2 12 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

than cost, you lose; if for more than cost, you gain. 
Although it is very simple, here is just where a great 
many fail in solving these examples. 

REMARKS 

I have given a few model lessons in this chapter, or 
partial lessons, sufficient, I think, to illustrate the man- 
ner of teaching these branches. It is not necessary to 
give a model lesson in each study, as the idea may be 
easily grasped from these here given, when taken in 
connection with the chapters on the respective topics. 
It would be impossible to represent on paper the actual 
work of a recitation conducted by a live teacher; but it 
is hoped that these few examples will prove suggestive 
and awaken the true spirit in the teacher who begins as 
a tyro in the work. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Under this head I will make a few suggestions which 
could not well be classified under any of the foregoing 
chapters, and perhaps recapitulate and add something 
to what has already been said. 

I. Uiiconscioiis TeacJiing. In the opening chapter 
I have hinted at the fact that a man teaches when he 
least seems to be teaching. All that a man does and 
thinks goes to make up his character; and a man's char- 
acter impresses itself upon all who come in contact with 
him. If his life has been filled with good deeds and 
thoughts, a certain good influence will flow from him 
and exert itself upon all with whom he deals, even upon 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 213 

those who know nothing of his former life. On the 
contrary, if he has been a bad man, has committed 
crimes, or indulged to a great extent in wicked thoughts, 
a bad influence will emanate from him, and influence 
all upon whom it falls. We are all, to a certain extent, 
character readers. We read persons by their manner, 
by their conversation, by their looks. Small children, 
even, are good readers of character, although they could 
not tell you by what rules they judge. We like or dis- 
like persons, and we cannot tell why. 

" I do not love you, Dr. Fell, 
The reason why I can not tell ; 
But this alone I know full well, 
I do not love you, Dr. Fell." 

But this much is true, that a good man will be gener- 
ally liked by everybody, that is, they will like him per- 
sonally, though they may hate his actions, or his princi- 
ples, because not in accordance with their own notions . 
and a hypocrite will be generally despised, however well 
he may play his part. 

Every thought and action of life, from infancy to 
manhood, has a bearing more or less direct on the work 
of a teacher. In other words, the teacher commences to 
develop in influence and constantly adds to his character 
that which will make him either a good teacher, or an 
inferior one. 

Remember, then, teacher, that you are always teaching 
when in contact with others. You should be in every 
sense a man. Strive to cultivate that true manhood. 
Keep a watch upon your thoughts and actions, and daily 



2 14 ^EST METHODS OF TEACHING 

and hourly build a character that will constantly teach 
the good, and the good only. 

But there are some men that are not very good nor 
very bad, sort of wooden men, mere automata or pup- 
pets, who can tell what they have learned, as a parrot 
says its phrase or an inferior stage actor his piece. You 
sometimes find them in the school room. Such men have 
so little character that they do very little unconscious 
teaching. Their presence teaches but little, because 
they have so little character to exert an influence. 
For all the good their presence does, the knowledge 
might as well be sent into the school room through a 
telephone. 

Again ; there are men whose very looks and manners 
teach lessons. You feel their magnetic force when you 
take them by the hand, and gather inspiration from their 
eyes. The successful teacher, as well as the men who 
move the world, belong to this class. 

2. Have SympatJiy for Pitpils. The true method of 
teaching is drawn from Nature. If we observe how a 
child acquires new ideas when left to himself, we may 
learn how to teach him. When a child makes a new dis- 
covery, or gets a new idea, the first thing he does is to 
make some one else acquainted with the fact. How 
eager the child is to show his mother any new object he 
finds, or to tell about any novelty he has seen. Observe 
how a boy will act after he has been to a circus. Even 
the infant will hold up his toys for you to look at and 
admire. We should infer from this, that children need 
encouragement in all their studies by a kind of attentive 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 215 

sympathy with all their efforts to acquire knowledge. 
When a child has drawn a picture, or formed a letter on 
the slate, and holds it up for you to look at, you ignore 
one of the first principles of teaching if you fail to notice 
the child's effort. This principle should be carried out 
with all grades of pupils. Take special pains to notice 
their efforts and give kind words of encouragement. 
Never make discouraging remarks about pupils' work. 
If they have through carelessness failed to do as well 
as you think they are capable of doing, never make sport 
of their work nor scold, but say : "That does pretty well, 
but I think you caji do better if you try." Always make 
favorable comments whenever you can conscientiously, 
but never compare one pupil's work with another's. In 
the work of the best pupils you can point out some 
defects; and in the work of the poorest pupils, you may 
find something upon which you can favorably comment. 
By thus taking an interest in, and showing a sympathy 
for their efforts you will encourage greater effort and 
secure the good will of all your pupils. 

3. Ride No Hobbies. The true teacher has no single 
pet theory nor patent method of teaching. He is ready 
at any time to abandon a plan as soon as he finds some- 
thing better. He is always open to conviction. He is 
progressive, and agressive, radical and even fanatical in 
the search for truth, yet conservative and cautious about 
adopting new methods until he has given them thorough 
study. He has a variety of plans, and uses different ones 
for different circumstances. He will not try to make a 
square block fill a round hole. He will find objections 



2l6 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

to all methods and adopt that which, after mature de- 
liberation, he finds to be the least objectionable. 

4. Study Yoiu' Own Failures. "The burnt child 
dreads the fire." Here again we have Nature's method 
of teaching. He makes greatest advances who is able 
to see his own mistakes. He who is bigoted and self- 
conceited, and never sees his own errors, will make but 
little progress in anything he undertakes. The teacher 
should observe closely the results of his plans and note 
where they are successful, and where a failure, and 
should govern his future accordingly. Let him review 
each evening the work of the day and try and find a 
mistake he has made, and resolve to do better the next 
day. A man should criticise himself severely, sparing 
no self-scrutiny with regard to his own actions. 

5. Make the School Room Attractive. The teacher 
can do something towards relieving the monotony of 
bare walls, plain desks and uncarpeted floor. In the 
first place, he should keep the school room clean, and 
in order; and next by use of pictures, mottoes, wreaths 
and flowers make it as attractive a place as possible. 
The school room should be as attractive in appearance 
as the average homes of the pupils. The nature of 
our daily surroundings has much to do in forming our 
characters. I might enlarge upon this point, but will 
not occupy the space, as the fact will be granted by the 
intelligent reader. You need not go to any considerable 
expense. Get a few pictures framed, and buy half a 
dozen mottoes. Keep them as a part of your stock in 
trade. Your pictures may be chromos, lithographs, or 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 217 

steel engravings, which will not cost much when neatly 
framed, but will, if selected with taste, form very 
attractive adornments for the walls. Let the subjects 
be animals, flowers, landscapes, or portraits of distin- 
guished men. Anything in the style appropriate to a 
bar-room or saloon will, of course, be out of place in the 
school room. If framed pictures can not be procured, 
the engravings from illustrated papers pasted on the 
walls with wreaths of evergreens around them, will form 
very attractive objects, for a time at least. A card motto 
surrounded with a wreath of evergreens, makes a very 
neat appearance on the wall. Winter bouquets may be 
made of everlasting flowers, ornamental grasses, etc. 
If the school room can be kept warm enough, a few 
house plants might be kept through the winter, and will 
add much to the cheerfulness of the place. During 
spring and fall terms, plants and flowers can be had in 
abundance, and they should form a part of the school 
room decorations. 

I need not suggest any further to the teacher who has 
a love for the beautiful. If you love the school room 
and school work, and are a true man or woman, you will 
profit by these suggestions. 

6. TJie TeacJier s Library. Books are to the teacher 
what tools are to the mechanic. As a mechanic can get 
along with a limited number of tools, so a teacher can 
get along with a limited number of books; but as cer- 
tain tools are essential to a mechanic, so certain books 
are essential to the teacher. T would not advise the 
young teacher to spend a great part of his earnings for 



2l8 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

books, nor to go in debt for them ; but there are a few- 
books which he ought to have, at almost any sacrifice, 
if he would be a good teacher. Let him go without 
paper collars, without tea or coffee, without anything 
finer than jean pants, rather than without an unabridged 
dictionary. Let him board himself and live on ten cents 
a day, rather than do without certain necessary books. 
I do not hesitate to say that any teacher can so econo- 
mize his means, and by cutting off an expense here and 
denying himself there, save money enough during one 
or two terms of school to procure the essentials of a 
teacher's library. 

An unabridged dictionary (either Webster's, Century, 
Funk & Wagnall's, or Worcester's) is an indispensable 
part of a teacher's outfit. The unabridged is a whole 
library in itself. There are few subjects upon which valu- 
able information can not be had by consulting its pages. 
There are many men who own dictionaries who know 
but little of what they contain. I would not only advise 
the purchase of an unabridged, but insist on its constant 
use. If you are not already pretty thoroughly read, you 
will find use for the dictionary in reading almost any 
species of composition you may take up. You should 
look up the meaning of every word about which you 
have the slightest doubt. 

You should look up the meaning of many simple 
words, the Anglo-Saxon monosyllables which you have 
used from infancy, words which you hear in daily con- 
versation, and meet with in your daily reading. You 
will find the dictionary valuable reading, notwithstand- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 219 

ing, as the old lady said, the subject changes frequently. 
Study the etymology of words. It will help you greatly 
in retaining their meaning in your memory. 

There are many books designed to help teachers, but 
from which the country teacher can obtain but little 
practical knowledge. I can call to mind about twenty 
different works on teaching and school management, 
which I have read or examined, and among the number 
I could recommend but two or three which would be of 
great benefit to a country teacher. Of course, there is 
much in them that is valuable, but scattered through so 
much that is merely theoretical and impracticable that 
it would not pay the outlay. I would advise, of course, 
that you purchase works on education and read them ; 
but beware of buying too many books at one time. It 
would be a good rule never to buy a new book until 
you have read the last one thoroughly. There is one 
book, however, I must recommend to every teacher. 
Though old and though written for students, yet as the 
truth it contains will never grow old, and as the teacher 
should be always a student, I can recommend it as next 
in importance to the unabridged dictionary. It is the 
Student's Manual, by Rev. John Todd, D. D., a work 
though small, containing more sensible advise than any 
work I can call to mind. 

One text book, at least, on each of the following 
sciences will gradually find its way into your library: 
physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, physiology, and 
geology. The ordinary text books designed for schools, 
will answer your purpose at first. If you have a class 



220 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

in physiology it will be of advantage to you to procure 
some larger treatise than the ordinary text book. A 
good work on composition and rhetoric will be valuable. 
A history of the United States, larger than those de- 
signed for schools, and an outline of universal history, 
will be valuable aids in teaching this branch and for 
self -improvement. 

There are three books I would like to name here 
which the teacher may procure when he gets able, and 
which he will find valuable as bearing more or less 
directly upon his profession. I will name them in the 
order in which he should obtain and read them : Herbert 
Spencer's Essay on Education; Quick's Educational Re- 
formers; Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching. These 
three volumes will give him a pretty thorough knowledge 
of the science of education, and they are standard and 
valuable works, deserving a place in every scholar's 
library, whatever profession he may follow. They are 
to be studied, not merely read and laid aside. 

If the teacher wishes to dip into science, he will find 
a mine of treasures in the International Series of Scien- 
tific books, published by D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
I would advise the teacher to procure the catalogues of 
the leading publishing houses and read the notices of 
new books, which are continually appearing. By keep- 
ing posted as to what the world of authors is doing, he 
will be able to select good books only, and buying them 
as he is able, he will, in time, build up a library of 
great value to him in whatever profession he may 
finally choose. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 22 1 

I would just say here that there are several books 
published annually by the United States Government, 
and designed for the improvement of those who are inter- 
ested in the respective subjects. Among those I would 
recommend to teachers, are the Reports of the Smithson- 
ian Institute, to be obtained of the Secretary of the In- 
stitution; the Reports of the Commissioner of Education, 
to be obtained of the Commissioner of Education. If 
these parties are addressed at Washington, D. C, by 
letter, stating plainly the book wanted and the year 
issued, they will be sent gratis. These works are fre- 
quently distributed by members of Congress to particular 
friends, often for political purposes, and thus do not 
reach the parties who would make good use of them. 
The teacher needs these works, and the Government 
designs that such persons should have them. It should 
be remembered that they are always issued a year or 
more after the year for which they are the report. For 
example, the report for 1 897 will be had sometime during 
the first of the year 1 899, or latter part of 1 898. 

By economy, by abstaining from habits such as chew- 
ing and smoking, any young man, can, in a few years, 
save enough to procure a good library. If all the money 
which is spent by young men from the time they are 
sixteen years of age until they are twenty -five, to gratify 
their appetites and morbid tastes, was saved and in- 
vested in good books, they would have a library, of 
which any man of intellectual taste might well be proud. 
No one should say, then, that he is too poor to buy 
books so long as he indulges in expensive habits, 



222 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

A good book is a treasure and does not even get old. 
Says Milton : ''A good book is the precious life-blood of 
a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up for a life to 
come." Commence then, young teacher, to build a li- 
brary. Commence with one book and add to it as your 
means will allow; and you will, in a few years, be sur- 
prised at the result. If you make judicious selections 
and good use of your books, you will also have a library 
in your head. » 

Borrow all the books you can, if they are such as you 
think will profit you to read. If you take good care of 
books, and are prompt to return them, you can always 
borrow. 

7. Exercise Your Pen. Lord Bacon said : ''Reading 
maketh a full man, writing an exact man." If you 
would profit by what you read and think, write your 
thoughts. It is a good habit always to read with a pen 
or pencil in hand. Many an idea is lost because not 
written. The mind receives ideas one after another 
and cannot retain them all, although each makes its im- 
pression. They will make a double impression by the 
act of writing them, and at the same time be preserved 
for future rehearsal when the mind has forgotten the 
form in which they came. Besides, by writing you are 
improving yourself in the power of expression, you are 
cultivating language. Take notes of your reading and 
write any ideas which your reading may suggest. 

Write essays on easy subjects, even though no one 
else ever sees them. Your first efforts will be of little 
benefit to anyone but yourself; but they will be of great 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 223 

help to you. Lay them aside for a year and then take 
them up and read them critically. You will find many 
errors, and see where you could make great improve- 
ments. Be the local reporter of your neighborhood. 
Write for your county paper. Local editors are always 
anxious to have a correspondent in each village or town- 
ship. The teacher is eminently fitted to fill that posi- 
tion, and the exercise will be of great benefit to him. 
By thus commencing on a small scale, he will, by and 
by, be able to write for educational journals, for maga- 
zines, etc. I advise teachers thus to exercise their pens 
continually for their own improvement ; and when they 
have improved to a certain extent, their pens will en- 
lighten others, and thus they will become educators as 
well as learners. Who knows what future Greeleys 
may come from among the country school teachers? 

8. Recipe for Blackboard. The teacher may find 
school rooms as I have found them, without sufficient 
blackboard. A good blackboard may be made for about 
fifty cents — not more than that. I cannot tell where 
this recipe came from, but I have used it in several 
school houses: 

Take equal parts of lamp-black and flour of emery, 
and thin with a mixture of equal parts of benzine and 
Japan varnish. Apply two coats to any smooth plas- 
tered wall. 

Where Boards of Education will not furnish plenty of 
blackboard, the teacher may make them ashamed of 
themselves for half a dollar. 

9. TJie TeacJier s HigJiest Reivard. The compen- 



224 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

sation paid teachers for their services is small in com- 
parison with the rewards of those who follow other pro- 
fessions. The wages of the best paid teachers are 
extremely low, compared with the income of a first 
class lawyer or physician. Some preachers also get 
large salaries. But professional men generally do not 
make fortunes. The great fortunes are nearly always 
made by merchants, or what are called business men. 
If your highest aim, young man, is to get rich, to 
amass a colossal fortune, do not enter a profession. 
But professional men see pleasure in the pursuit of 
something beside wealth. The highest pleasures flow 
from the action of the intellect. An Agassiz, who said 
he had no time to make money, enjoyed existence, I 
venture to assert, much more than a Vanderbilt or an 
Astor. 

The teacher who finds no pleasure in the pursuit of 
his profession, or in the action of his intellect, would 
better quit the profession at once, and engage in some 
other pursuit. But there are times when the best of 
teachers feel discouraged. There are times when their 
labors seem in vain. They have labored patiently, day 
in and day out; and their work seems like the labors of 
Sisyphus, who was doomed to roll a stone to the top of 
a hill, and in spite of all his efforts it continually 
returned upon him. But remember, teacher, that your 
work is sometimes like bread cast upon the waters, to 
return after many days. When such thoughts come 
over you, read the following poem which is such an 
excellent piece of composition, and so aptly hits the 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 225 

point, that I cannot refrain from quoting it entire. It 
is from the pen of W. H. Venable, distinguished ahke 
as an educator, author, and poet : 

THE TEACHER'S DREAM 

The weary teacher sat alone 

While twilight gathered on; 
And not a sound was heard around. 

The boys and girls were gone. 

The weary teacher sat alone; 

Unnerved and pale was he; 
Bowed 'neath a yoke of care, he spoke 

In sad soliloquy: 

"Another round, another round 
Of labor thrown away, — 
Another chain of toil and pain 
Dragged through a tedious day. 

Of no avail is constant zeal, 

Love's sacrifice is loss. 
The hopes of morn, so golden, turn, 

Each evening, into dross. 

I squander on a barren field. 

My strength, my life, my all; 
The seeds I sow will never grow. 

They perish where they fall." 

He sighed, and low upon his hands 

His aching brow he prest; 
And o'er his frame, erelong, there came 

A soothing sense of rest. 

And then he lifted up his face. 

But started back aghast, — • 
The room by strange and sudden change 

Assumed proportions vast. 



226 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

It seemed a Senate Hall, and one 
Addressed a listening throng. 

Each burning word all bosoms stirred ; 
Applause rose loud and long. 

The 'wildered teacher tliought he knew 
The speaker's voice and look. 
"And for his name," said he, "the same 
Is in my record book." 

The stately Senate Hall dissolved. 

A church rose in its place, 
Wherein there stood a man of God, 

Dispensing words of grace. 

And though he spoke in solemn tone, 
And though his hair was gray, 

The teacher's thought was strangely wrought; 
" I whipped that boy to-day." 

The church, a phantom, vanished soon; 

What saw the teacher then? 
In classic gloom of alcoved room, 

An author plied his pen. 

"My idlest lad!" the teacher said. 

Filled with new surprise — 
"Shall I behold Jiis name enrolled 

Among the great and wise?" 

The vision of a cottage home 

The teacher now descried. 
A mother's face illumed the place 

Her influence sanctified. 

"A miracle! a miracle! 

This matron, well I know. 
Was but a wild and careless child, 
Not half an hour ago. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 227 

And when she to her children speaks 

Of duty's golden rule, 
Her lips repeat, in accents sweet, 

My words to her at school." 

The scene was changed again, and lo, 

The schoolhouse rude and old. 
Upon the wall did darkness fall ; 

The evening air was cold. 

"A dream!" the sleeper, waking, said, 
Then paced along the floor, 
And, whistling slow and soft and low, 
He locked the schoolhouse door. 

And walking home, his heart was full 

Of peace and trust and love and praise; 
And singing slow and soft and low. 
He murmured : "After many days." 



HINTS AND HELPS FOR THE TEACHER 

Gen. Sheridan wrote to Gen. Grant, ''Things are in 
a shape to push." Grant repHed, ''Push things." Let 
me say to you, teacher, country teacher though you 
are, PiisJi things. Though you may have the dingiest 
log schoolhouse, among the rudest of backwoods men, 
for your theater of operations, let me repeat to you, 
PiisJi tilings. If things are not in a shape to push, put 
them in a shape to push, and then push. You must 
have push, vim, energy, call it what you will, j/ on ninst 
have that which will 7nake things go if you would 
succeed. 

Read the following extracts from some of the leading 



228 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

thinkers and educators of the world. You may gather 
inspiration from them and be prompted to take re- 
newed interest in your work: 

Ideas make their way in silence like the waters that, 
filtering behind the rocks of the Alps, loosen them 
from the mountains on which they rest. — D' Aubigne, 

In the end, thought rules the world. There are 
times when impulses and passions are more powerful, 
but they soon expend themselves; while mind, acting 
constantly, is ever ready to drive them back and work 
when their energy is exhausted. — McCosh. 

I do not think that it is the mission of this age, or of 
any other age, to lay down a system of education 
which shall hold good for all ages. Let us never 
forget that the present century has just as good a right 
to its forms of thought and methods of culture as any 
former centuries had to theirs, and that the same re- 
sources of power are open to us to-day as were ever 
open to humanity in any age of the world. — Tyndall. 

The profession of the teacher can not be too highly 
estimated. It demands, for its highest success and 
usefulness, a special knowledge and training beyond 
the scope of the common learning and methodical dis- 
cipline which it labors to impart. The teacher should 
know the human mind, and the bodily conditions upon 
which mind depends. — Hecker. 

People do not understand childhood. With the false 
notions we have of it, the further we go the more we 
blunder. The wisest apply themselves to what it is 
important to men to know, without considering what 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 229 

children are in a condition to learn. They are always 
seeking the man in the child, without reflecting what 
he is before he can be a man. This is the study to 
which I have applied myself most; so that, should my 
practical scheme be found useless and chimerical^ my 
observation will always turn to account. I may 
possibly have taken a very bad view of what ought to 
be done, but I conceive I have taken a good one of the 
subject to be wrought upon. Begin, then, by studying 
your pupils better; for most assuredly you do not at 
present understand them. — Rousseau. 

■ The object of education is to promote the normal 
growth of a human being, developing all his powers 
systematically and symmetrically, so as to give the 
greatest possible capability in thought and action. — 
Prof. James Johonnot. 

Education must put the child to work; for by work 
man is perfected. And what he does not achieve, he 
never comprehends; and, hence, the barrenness of the 
word learning of the schools. It profits but little the 
individual, and none at all the race or nation. — Samuel 

Royce. 

I discard, as selfish in the extreme, that narrow 
principle, which would look down upon any branch of 
human knowledge as useless or improper, however 
widely they may differ in relative value. Some topics 
of study seem to have no object but the occupation and 
exercise, whether salutary or not, of the mental 
faculties; while others do not assert a principle, or 
move a step without contributing to the welfare and 



230 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

improvement of the human family. — E, D. Mans- 
field. 

The schoolmaster is one of the chief workmen, I 
may almost say the principal, in preparing for the 
genius of America, in the bright years of that futurity, 
the most magnificent edifice that the mind of a nation 
ever inhabited. — Thomas Smith Grimke. 

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this 
world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a 
plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who 
can think; but thousands can think for one who can 
see. To see clearly, is poetry, prophecy and religion, 
all in one. — Rtiskm. 

Man's actions here are of infinite moment to him, and 
never die or end at all. Man, with his little life, reaches 
upward high as heaven — downward low as hell ; and in 
his three-score-years of time holds an eternity fearfully 
and wonderfully hidden. — Thomas Carlyle. 

Oh, how hard it is to die, and not be able to leave the 
world any better for one's little life in it! — Abraham 
Lincoln. 

The great secret of success in life is for a man to be 
ready when his opportunity comes. — Disraeli. 

There is no credit in knowing how to spell, but posi- 
tive disgrace in being ignorant on that point. So there 
can be no credit in doing right, while it is infamous to 
do wrong. — George Francis Train. 

Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, 
they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 23 1 

character; and if true, they show a man his weak points 
and forewarn him against faihire and trouble. — Glad- 
stone. 

The child, through stumbling, learns to walk erect. 
Every fall is upward. — Theodore Parker. 

Old truths are always new to us if they come with 
the smell of heaven upon them. — JoJin Bimya^t. 

Be a bold, brave, true, honest man. If you know a 
thing is right, do it. If you have a solemn conviction, 
dare to utter it in the fear of God, regardless of the 
wrath of man. — -JoJin B. Gough. 

There is no temptation so great as not to be tempted 
at all. — Hannah More. 

It is a principle of war, that when you can use the 
thunder-bolt you must prefer it to the cannon. Earnest- 
ness is the thunder-bolt. — Napoleon. 

If I take care of my character my reputation will take 
care of itself. — Moody. 

I would rather be right than be President. — Henry 
Clay. 

An instructed democracy is the surest foundation of 
Government; and education and freedom are the only 
sources of true greatness and true happiness among any 
people. — John Bright. 

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge 
of our own ignorance. — Spiirgeon. 

Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do noth- 
ing in this age. There is another personage, a person- 
age less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignifi- 



232 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

cant. The school-master is abroad, and I trust to him, 
armed with his primer, against the soldier in full mili- 
tary array. — Lord Brougham. 

Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the 
highest employment of which his nature is capable, and 
die with the consciousness that he has done his best. — 
Sydney Smith. 

But under whose care soever a child is put to be 
taught, during the tender and flexible years of his life, 
this is certain : it should be one who thinks Latin and 
language the least part of education; one, who knowing 
how much virtue, and a well tempered soul, is to be 
preferred to any sort of learning or language, makes it 
his chief business to form the mind of his scholars, and 
give that a right disposition; which, if once got, though 
all the rest should be neglected, would, in due time, pro- 
duce all the rest; and which if it be not got, and settled, 
so as to keep out ill and vicious habits — languages and 
sciences, and all other accomplishments of education, 
will be to no purpose, but to make the worse a more 
dangerous man. — John Locke. — l6go. 

In our country and in our times, no man is worthy 
the honored name of a statesman who does not include 
the highest practicable education of the people in all 
his plans of administration. — Horace Mann. 

The teacher should permit his pupil himself to taste 
and relish things, and of himself to choose and discern 
them, sometimes opening the way to him, and some- 
times making him break the ice himself; that is, I 
would not have the teacher alone to invent and speak, 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 233 

but that he should also hear his pupils speak. Socrates, 
and since him Arcesilaus, made first their scholars 
speak, and then spoke to them. — Montaigne. — Written 
in the age of Queen Elizabeth. 

There is a most remarkable reciprocal action between 
the interest which the teacher takes and that which he 
communicates to his pupils. If he is not with his whole 
mind present at the subject, if he does not care whether 
he is understood or not, whether his manner is liked or 
not, he will alienate the affections of his pupils, and 
render them indifferent to what he says. But real in- 
terest taken in the task of instruction^ — kind words and 
kinder feelings — the very expression of the features, 
and the glance of the eye, are never lost upon children. 
— Pestalozzi. 

Intelligence and virtue are the foundation and the 
cornerstone of the American Republic. Hence, it fol- 
lows that ignorance and wrong are its most formidable 
foes. Its theory is that every citizen must be intelli- 
gent enough clearly to comprehend, and virtuous enough 
faithfully to discharge his duties. — Prof. Wm. F. 
Phelps. 

All who consider the subject must admit that the 
teacher is called to labor in a field of vast influence. 
This the teacher should understand, and, though he 
may at times feel almost crushed by the weight of his 
responsibilities, and be induced to exclaim: *'Who is 
sufficient for these things.!^" yet let him persevere, 
trusting in Him from whom cometh all needed assist- 
ance, ever aiming at a nearer approximation to the 



234 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

mark of perfection, ever striving to remove defects and 
cultivate excellences. — NortJiend. 

In the .name of the living God it must be proclaimed, 
that licentiousness shall be the liberty — violence and 
chicanery shall be the law — superstition and craft shall 
be the religion — and the self-destructive indulgence of 
all sensual and unhallowed passions, shall be the only 
happiness of that people who neglect the education of 
their children. — Hon. Newton Bate man. 

To teach, whether by word or action, is the greatest 
function on earth. — Chaiming. 

We want men of original perception and original ac- 
tion, who can open their eyes wider than to a nation- 
ality — namely, to considerations of benefit to the 
human race — can act in the interest of civilization; 
men of classic, men of moral mind, who can live in 
the moment and take a step forward. Columbus was 
no backward creeping crab, nor was Martin Luther, nor 
John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor Thomas Jefferson; 
and the Genius or Destiny of America is no lag or 
sluggard, but a man incessantly advancing, as the shadow 
on the dial's face, or the heavenly body by whose light 
it is marked. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Some teachers have learned how to read mind, to 
understand a class of pupils in a single day's observa- 
tion. Some have learned how to encourage one and 
guide another, how to control each one according to 
his peculiarities. The teacher who knows this, as the 
musician knows how to bring out harmonies from the 
instrument, is the one who can teach easily and success- 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 235 

fully, and proves to be the true teacher. Teachers 
should learn, then, how to read character, how to read 
the disposition of each pupil, and how, therefore, to 
manipulate each one in the best manner to secure the 
highest success. — Nelson Sizer. 

If we work upon marble, it will perish. If we work 
upon brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they 
will crumble into dust. But if we work upon immortal 
minds — if we imbue them with high principles — with 
the just fear of God and of their fellow men, — we 
engrave upon those tablets something which no time 
can efface, but which will brighten to all eternity. — 
Daniel Webster. 

It requires more care and attention, more experience 
and sagacity, and a more intimate acquaintance with 
the principles of human nature, to direct the opening 
intellect in its first excursions in the path of knowledge, 
than to impart to it instructions respecting any particu- 
lar science in after life. — Thomas Dick. 

Before the earnestness of truth and sincerity, the 
glittering charms of wordy eloquence, or the seductive 
imagery of unhallowed genius, sink into insignificance. 
— Mrs. L incoln Phelps. 

The end of education is the power or art of thinking. 
This power is acquired, but never inborn. It is always 
the price of long-continued and patient study. Talents 
though ''angel bright," and even genius, need culture 
to be educated, as really as the most ordinary intellects. 
The mere absorption of knowledge, as the sponge absorbs 
water, gives no discipline; and hence the acquiring of 



236 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

knowledge is not the object to be gained, but the develop- 
ment of mental power. — Oi'ctitt. 

A believer in the doctrine ''the physician born not 
made," (a motto on a par with ''the teacher born, not 
made)," once said to a distinguished oculist, who was 
advocating the necessity of thorough training in his pro- 
fession: "Why, doctor, you have attained the highest 
skill without such aid." The oculist replied: "But I 
spoiled a bushel of eyes in acquiring the art, and now 
I can teach others to avoid my blunders." Contrasts 
most marked I often witness in schools similar in other 
conditions, except that an expert teaches the one, and a 
novice experiments in the other. In the one you see 
order, interest, activity, cheerfulness, and joy of con- 
scious progress ; in the other, confusion, whispering and 
mischief, or listlessness, indolence, and dislike of study. 
— B. G. Noi^thi^op. 

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; 
and with all thy getting get understanding. — Solomon. 

Education is intended to enlighten the intellect, to 
train it and the moral sentiments to vigor, and to repress 
the too great activity of the selfish feelings. But how 
can this be successfully accomplished, when the facul- 
ties and sentiments themselves, the laws to which they 
are subjected, and their relations to external objects, are 
unascertained.? Accordingly, the theories and practices 
observed in education are innumerable and contradict- 
ory; which could not happen if men knew the consti- 
tution of the object which they were training. — Geo. 
Combe. 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 237 

Nothing is comprehended so fully and distinctly, 
nothing retained so firmly, as that which we find our- 
selves. — Kant. 

Each one of us has in himself his ideal prize man — 
that is, the harmonious maximum of all his individual 
predispositions; and it is the business of education to 
develop him into full growth. — Richte7\ 

The educator must adapt himself to the pupil, but not 
to such a degree as to imply that the pupil is incapable 
of change, and he must also be sure that the pupil shall 
learn through his experience the independence of the 
object studied, which remains uninfluenced by his vari- 
able personal moods; and the adaptation on the teacher's 
part must never compromise this independence. — 
Rosefikranz. 

The profession of pedagogy is the latest comer among 
the liberal professions of this country. The law, theol- 
ogy, and medicine, are already crowded so with partially 
and well-educated candidates, that the people are able 
to select the wheat from the chaff. No community of 
any considerable pretension is now compelled to take 
up with a pettifogger for its lawyer, a quack for its 
doctor, or an ignorant gospel ranter for its minister. 
The objective point of our system of normal education 
is to stimulate the preparation of teachers, by agencies, 
public and private, popular and collegiate, till the same 
"glut in the market," enables the school committees to 
go into the field and choosethe best the money supplied 
by the people will command. — Rev. A. D. Mayo. 

The faithful and competent teacher never fails to 



238 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

secure the confidence, respect, and even affection of his 
pupils. He is, as he ought to be, esteemed "in place 
of a parent." He is thought to be infallible. He ought 
therefore, to be correct. He is esteemed as possessing 
the whole cyclopaedia of knowledge. He ought, there- 
fore, to be a man of extensive acquaintance with the 
principles of science. He is thought by the confiding 
pupil to be incapable of any measure, or even intention 
at variance with honest views of promoting the best 
interests of those entrusted to his care. And he ought 
accordingly, to enlist all his energies in promoting the 
solid improvement and moral growth of every mind 
submitted to his influence. — Wm. H. McGiijfey. 

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon 
precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, 
and there a little. — Isaiah. 

Learning is but an adjunct to ourself. — Shakespeare. 

A mother tells her infant that two and two make 
four; the child is able to count four for all the purposes 
of life, till the course of his education brings him among 
philosophers, who fright him from his former knowledge 
by telling him that four is a certain aggregate of units. 
— Samuel Johnson. 

Books, schools, education, are the scaffolding by means 
of which God builds up the human soul. — Humboldt. 

Delightful task ! to rear the tender thought, 

To teach the young idea how to shoot. — Thomson. 

What is defeat .-* Nothing but education — nothing but 
the first step to something better. — Wendell Phillips. 

Country schools need the very best teachers, men and 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 239 

women of broad views and culture, of experience and 
knowledge of human nature, men and women fitted to 
be leaders in these little communities. I know of no 
position of more influence than that of a teacher in a 
country district where a healthy public sentiment pre- 
vails. If possessed of any qualifications for leadership, 
the teacher becomes almost inevitably a leader of 
thought and opinion. His influence is not bounded by 
the school room walls, but extends to every home in the 
district. If this teacher be vain, frivolous, silly, if im- 
moral or the slave of filthy habits, from that school will 
proceed influences that will curse every home in the 
district; if that teacher be pure, noble-minded, strong- 
souled, as a teacher ought to be, the streams flowing 
from that school will be streams of blessing, like those 
"which make glad the city of God." — Mary Allen West. 

Now, I believe that a school, in order to be a good 
one, should be one that will fit men and women, in the 
best way, for the humble positions that the great mass 
of them must necessarily occupy in life. It is not nec- 
essary that boys and girls be taught any less than they 
are taught now. They should receive more practical 
knowledge than they do now, without a doubt, and less 
of that which is simply ornamental; bivt they cannot 
know too much. I do not care how much knowledge 
a man may have acquired in school, that school has 
been a curse to him if its influence has been to make 
him unhappy in his place, and to fill him with futile 
ambitions. ■ — J. G. Holland. 

Knowledge which costs nothing, which is not born of 



240 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

the travail of the soul, is fleeting and unprofitable. 
Explain a point to a class, be it never so clearly; impart 
information even of the most interesting and valuable 
character; and, if it be not fastened in the mind of the 
pupil, be not digested and assimilated by a subsequent 
mental operation, it will soon pass away. Gradgrind 
may fill the little pitchers ranged before him to over- 
flowing, but they will not hold water. Here is the great 
benefit of class-drill and reviews. They force the mind 
to appropriate knowledge, and so retain what else would 
be suffered to escape. — J. Dorman Steele. 

Do not seek happiness in what is misnamed pleasure. 
Seek it rather in what is termed study. "^ ^ "^ Learn 
to make a right use of your eyes; the commonest things 
are worth looking at, even stones and weeds, and the 
most familiar animals. Read good books, not forgetting 
the best of all; there is more true philosophy in the 
Bible than in every work of every skeptic that ever 
wrote; and we would all be miserable creatures without 
it. — Hugh Miller. 

He who would teach well and to advantage, must not 
only understand the subjects which he is to teach; he 
must know how to grasp the mental food offered; and 
he must be able to put that food into such a shape that 
it may be grasped by the learner. — Anna C. Brackett. 

Beyond his judicious preference for his own well-ap- 
proved, though unpretending weapons; beyond his 
modest, but self-respectful reliance upon his own self- 
developed powers; beyond his prompt, but unostenta- 
tious acceptance of the duty and the trial providentially 



IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS 24I 

imposed upon him ; beyond that imperturbable coolness 
and calmness which stamped him every inch a man, as 
well as a hero ; — beyond all this, let the true teacher 
discover and ponder well, that lesson of simple, unwa- 
vering faith in a divine guidance and support, which he, 
in his conflicts with ignorance and insubordination, 
needs not less than did David in his memorable combat 
with the giant of Gath; and may he, in his time of 
need, both seek and find that guidance and support, 
and through them, come off conqueror indeed. — Jewell. 

The human mind is the brightest display of the power 
and skill of the Infinite Mind with which we are ac- 
quainted. It is created and placed in this world to be 
educated for a higher state of existence. Here its fac- 
ulties begin to unfold, and those mighty energies, which 
are to bear it forward to unending ages, begin to dis- 
cover themselves. The object of training such a mind 
should be, to enable the soul to fulfil her duties well 
here, to stand on high vantage-ground when she leaves 
this cradle of her being, for an eternal existence beyond 
the grave. — Rev. John Todd. 

Men have tried many things, but still they ask for 
stimulant' — the stimulant in use requires the use of 
more. Men try to drown the floating dead of their own 
souls in the wine-cup, but the corpses will rise. We 
see their faces in the bubbles. The intoxication of 
drink sets the world whirling again, and the pulses play- 
ing music, and the thoughts galloping ; but the fast clock 
runs down sooner, and the unnatural stimulation only 
leaves the house it fills with the wildest revelry — more 



242 BEST METHODS OF TEACHING 

silent, more sad, more deserted, more dead. There is 
only one stimulant that never fails, and yet never intoxi- 
cates — Duty. Duty puts a blue sky over every man 
— up in his heart may be — into which the sky-lark, 
Happiness, always goes singing. — Geo. D. Prentice, 



INDEX 



Abbreviations, 91-92. 

Accent in Reading, 76. 

Acoustics, 166. 

Addition, iii. 

Addressing Letters, 98. 

Advanced Arithmetic, 110-209. 

Advanced Geography, 154-196. 

Advanced Reading, 75. 

Advanced Spelling, 91. 

Agreeableness, 5-22. 

Algebra, 168. 

Alphabet, 68. 

Alphabet Blocks, 68. 

Alphabetic Method, 65. 

Analysis, 67-124. 

Anatomy, Physiology and Hy- 
giene, 162. 

Animal Food, 9. 

Apparatus, 56. 

Appetite for Fiction, 14. 

Application for School, 23. 

Architecture, School, 49. 

Arithmetic, 110-209. 

Articulation, 63-69. 

Associations, Teacher's, 24. 

Astronomy, 168. 

Attendance, Irregular, 123. 

Attention, Habits of, T^y. 

Attractive, Make the School 
Room, 216. 



Authors, 13. 

Autocrat of the School Room, 40 

Automatons, Teachers as, 213. 

Bargains with Directors, 23. 

Bathing, 9. 

Beginners, Teaching to Read, 64. 

Beginning, Make a Good, 28. 

Benevolence, 3. 

"Big Head," 22. 

Bigoted Teachers, 5. 

Bills, Merchant's, 118. 

Black-board, Necessity of, 55. 

Black-board, Recipe for Making, 

56-223. 
Blocks, 45. 

Biography, Works of, 14. 
Boarding, 8. 
Boards of Education, Secure Aid 

of, 27. 
Boards of Education, Teachers 

Instruct, 51. 
Bones, 163. 

Books for the Teacher, 219. 
Borrow Books, 222. 
Botany, 15-172. 
Brain, Well-balanced, 6. 
Bright Pupils, 44. 
Buildings, 50. 
Business, Show That You Mean, 32. 



243 



2 44 



INDEX 



Calibre, Mental, 6. 

Calisthenic Exercises, 46. 

Cancellation, i 20. 

Capital Letters, Use of, 72. 

Carbonic Acid, 58. 

Character, i. 

Charts for Penmanship, 223. 

Charts for Reading, 68. 

Cheating, 188. 

Cheerfulness, 3. 

Chemistry, 15. 

Chewing and Smoking, 18. 

Child, Mind of, 39. 

Circulation, 165. 

Classes, 28. 

Cleanliness, 9. 

Coercive Measures, 43. 

Coffee, 10. 

Colds, 61. 

Collect Specimens, 1 5-1 71. 

College Discipline, 12. 

College Education, 12. 

•' Coming Man," 40. 

Commissioner of Education, Re- 
ports of, 221. 

Companions, Politeness to, 191. 

Compass of the Voice, 76. 

Compositions, 134. 

Compound Numbers, 116. 

Conducting Recitations, 23- 

Conscientiousness, 4. 

Constitution of U. S. Should be 
Read in Classes, 8r. 

Construction of School-houses, 

49-55- 
Contract with School Boards, 23. 

Convection, 60. 

Conversation, 22. 

Costume, 18. 



County Papers, 81. 
Crime and Education, 50. 
Criticisms, ^y. 
Cultivation, ;^2. 
Culture, 1 1. 

Dates in History, 145. 

Deception, 187. 

Decimal Fractions, 120. 

Declaration of Independence Read 
in Classes, 81. 

Defining, 90. 

Delivery, 70. 

Democratic Form of Government, 
41. 

Denominate Numbers, 116. 

Despotism, 41. 

Detective, Teacher as a, 3. 

Dickens, 12. 

Dictation Exercises, 93. 

Diet, 9. 

Difficult Words, 98. 

Digestion, 165. 

Dignity, 194. 

Direction, Idea of, 200. 

Directors, 21. 

Discipline, 38. 

Dismissal, 47. 

Disposition, Cheerful, 3. 

Division, 1 13. 

" Do Right," the Only Rule Neces- 
sary, 42. 

Draughts, 59. 

Drawing, 45. 

Drawing Maps, 200. 

Dress, 18. 

Drills, Oral, 113. 

Easy Accounts, 125. 
Eclectic Method, 67. 



INDEX 



245 



Economy, 189. 

Elocution, 63. 

Emphasis in Reading, 72. 

Employment, 43. 

Encouragement, Give Words of, 

215. 
Encyclopaedias, 56. 
Enrolling Names, 32. 
Enthusiasm, 38. 
Essays, 222. 
Etymology, 219. 
Examination, ;^;^. 
Excitation, 23- 
Exercise, 8. 
Exhibitions, 58. 
Experiments, 177. 
Expression, 2-37. 
Eyes, 166. 

Factoring, 119, 

Failures, Study Your Own, 216. 

Farmer, 22. 

Feuds Among Families, 22. 

Fiction, 13. 

Finger Nails, Attention to, 19. 

Firmness, 5. 

First Day of School, 32. 

First Reader, 69. 

Flowers, 217, 

Foppishness, 18. 

Force in Reading, 76. 

Force in School Room, 43. 

Fortunes Not Made by Teaching, 

224. 
Foul Air, 58. 
Fourth Reader, 74. 
Fractions, 120. 
Frankness, 3. 
Free School System, 58. 



Fruits, 9. . 
Furniture, 56. 

Games, 9. 

General Exercises, 47. 
General Knowledge, 15. 
General Reading, 13. 
Generosity, 193. 
Geography, 148. 
Geography, Advanced, 196. 
Geography, Primary, 200. 
Geology, 15-176. 
German Boy, 48. 
Globes, 56. 
Government, 38. 
Grades, 28, 
Grammar, 127-207. 
Grasping Thought, 77. 
Greek and Latin, 10. 
Group Method, 82. 
Grube Method, 122 

Habits of the Teacher, 18. 

Health, 8. 

Herbarium, 15. 

Higher Mathematics, 168. 

Highest Reward, The Teacher's, 

223. 
History, U. S., 142-203. 
Hobby-riding, 215. 
Honesty, 187. 
Honor, 3. 

Horseback Riding, 9. 
Hygiene, 8. 
Hypocrite, 2-213.. 

Illiteracy IxN Proportion to 

Expenditure, 50. 
Impression, Make a Good, 23-32, 
Impure Language, 194. 



246 



INDEX 



Independent Spirit, 49? 
Industry, 188. 

Inflection in Reading, 72-76. 
Influence of the Teacher, 20. 
Institute, Smithsonian, 221. 
Institutes, Teacher's, 25. 
Instruction, 33. 
Interest, 121. 
Investigation, 38. 
Irregular Attendance, 123. 

Kindness, 3-192. 
Knowledge, General, 15. 
Know Thyself, 6. 

Labor, Manual, 8. 

Language, 71. 

Language Lessons, 128. 

Latin and Greek, 10. 

Latitude and Longitude, How 

Taught, 1 55-161. 
Leaves, Collection of, 172. 
Leaves, Outline of, 173. 
Lectures, 36. 
Letters, 136. 
Library for Schools, 57. 
Library for Teachers, 217. 
Listener, Teacher Should be a 

Good, 22. 
Literature, 85. 
Loafing, 13. 
Local Reporter, 223. 
Location of School-houses, 52. 
Love for Study, How to Incite, 

38. 
Love of the Work, 3. 
Lying, 187. 

Magazines, 13. 
Magnetic Force, 214. 



Manual or Constructive Work, 

180. 
Manual Labor, 8. 
Majority, Voice of, 41. 
Map Drawing, 200. 
Map Drills, 151. 
Material for School-houses, 55. 
Mathematics, 168. 
Meddling Spirit, 22, 
Mensuration, 122. 
Mental Qualifications, 3. 
Merchant's Bills, 117. 
Mind of the Child, 39. 
Mischief, 40. 
Misdirected Funds, 51. 
Model Recitations, 196. 
Model SpelUng Lesson, 91. 
Models for Parsing, 141. 
Morals and Manners, 182. 
Moral Qualifications, i. 
Moroseness, 3. 
Mottoes, 216. 
Multiplication, 112. 
Muscles, 164. 
Music, 15. 

Names, write on Black-board, 

43- 
Natural Sciences, 171. 
Natural Tone in Reading, 70. 
Neatness, 18. 
Nervous System, 166. 
Newspaper, 80-96. 
Noise, 42-55- 
Normal Schools, 12. 
Notation and Numeration,"! ii. 
Novels, 14. 

Number, Idea of, no. 
Numeral Frame, 56. 



INDEX 



247 



Object Method, 84. 
Obstinacy, 5. 
Odd Moments, 12. 
Optics, 166. 
Oral Arithmetic, iii. 
Oral Drills, in. 
Order, 4. 
Organizing, 31, 
Orthography, 90. 

Page, David P., Quotation from, 

16. 
Painting, 15. 
Papers, Reading in School Hours, 

44- 
Parents, 20. 
Pastry, 9. 
Patrons, 20. 
Pause in Reading, 77. 
Penmanship, loi. 
Percentage, 121. 
Perception Cultivated, 71, 
Personal Habits, 18. 
Pestalozzi, Quotation from, 39. 
Philoprogenitiveness, 4. 
Phonic Method, 66. 
Physical Qualifications, 7. 
Physics, 177. 
Physiology, 162. 

Pictures in the School Room, 216. 
Pitch in Reading, 76. 
Plan of School-house, 53. 
Play-grounds, 52. 
Poetic Feet, 75. 
Poetic License, 75. 
Politeness, 19-191. 
Political, 25. 
Pollard Method, 83. 
Position in Reading, 71. 



Preliminary Work, 27. 
Preparation for Work, 11. 
Primary Geography, 200. 
Printing Press, 100. 
Processes before Rules, 114. 
Profanity, 194. 
Program, 30. 

Profession of Teaching, 25. 
Promptness, 190. 
Pronunciation, 96. 
Property, Protection of, 192. 
Punctuality, 19, 
Punctuation, 62. 
Purity of Speech, 194. 

Qualifications — Mental, 3. 

— Moral, I. 

— Physical, 7. 

— Scientific and Literary, ro. 
Quality in Reading, 76. 
Quantity in Reading, 76. 
Questions, 34. 

Quiet School, 42, 

Radiation of Heat, 60. 

Rate in Reading, 77. 

Reading, 12-62. 

Recesses, 31. 

Recipe for Black-board, 223. 

Recitations, Manner of Conduc- 
ting, 33. 

Recitations, Model, 196. 

Recreation, 8. 

Regular Meals, 9. 

Relation of Teacher to Parents, 
20. 

Relation of Teacher to Profes- 
sion, 25. 

Relation of Teacher to Society, 
24. 



248 



INDEX 



Religious Creed, 25. 

Religious Man, 3. 

Reports by the Government, 221. 

Respect, 191. 

Respiration, 165. 

Responsibility, 20. 

Rest, 46. 

Reviews, 34. 

Reward, Teacher's Highest, 223. 

Rhetoric, 129. 

Ride No Hobbies, 215. 

Rules, 42. 

Scientific and Literary Qual- 
ifications, 10. 
School Boards, 21. 
School-houses, Construction of, 

49-55- 
School-houses, Location of, 52. 

School-houses, Plan of, 53. 

School-houses, Size of, 52. 

School-houses, Surroundings of, 

52. 
School Room, 216. 
Scrap-book, 36. 
Second Reader, 71. 
Self-government, 49. 
Self-reliance, 5. 
Sentence Method, 82. 
Sentence Writing, 134. 
Separatrix, Importance of, 11 0. 
Shrubbery, 52. 
Skin, Health of, 9. 
Slates, 44. 

Slur in Reading, 90. 
Small Pupils, 47. 
Social Qualities, 5. 
Society, Teacher in Relation to, 



Special Senses, 166. 

Specimens, Make Collection of, 
171. 

Specimens to Illustrate Physi- 
ology and Anatomy, 167. 

Speech, Purity of, 194. 

Spelling and Defining, 90. 

Spelling Matches, 93. 

Spencer, Herbert, Quotations 
from, 48. 

Spirit of the Teacher, 16. 

Statistics, 50. 

Stepping-stone, Teaching a, 17. 

Stories, 47-80. 

Stoves, 60-137. 

Strangers, Politeness to, 191. 

Stress in Reading, 90. 

Student's Manual, 219. 

Studiousness, 20. 

Study, Time for, 29. 

Study Your Own Failures, 216. 

Submissiveness, 48. 

Subtraction, 1 12. 

Sunday School, 24. 

Swearing, 194. 

Sympathy for Pupils, 4-214. 

Syntax, 133. 

System and Regularity, 19. 

Tables, 118. 
Tact, 22-23. 
Talking Too Much, 36. 
Tattling, 186. 
Taxation for Schools, 50. 
Tea, 10. 

Teacher, Habits of, 18. 
Teacher, Health of, 7. 
Teacher, In Relation to Patrons, 
20. 



INDEX 



249 



Teacher, In Relation to Profes- 
sion, 25. 

Teacher, In Relation to Society, 24. 

Teacher, Library of, 217. 

Teacher, Responsibilities of, 20. 

Teacher, Spirit of, 16. 

Teacher, Qualifications of, 3. 

Teaching Power, 37. 

Teaching, Unconscious, 212. 

Technical Grammar, 128. 

Teeth, Care of, 18. 

Telephone, 214. 

Temperance, 9. 

Third Reader, 72. 

Tobacco, 10-19. 

Todd's Student's Manual, 219. 

Topic List for Study of Geog- 
raphy, 154. 

Topics, 34. 

Township Institutes, 26. 

Tyrants, 5. 

Unconscious Teaching, 212. 
Universities, 184. 
U. S. Money, 116. 
Unsuspicious, 3. 

Variety in the School Room, 
47. 



Vegetables, 9. 

Venable's Poem, Teacher's Dream, 

225. 
Ventilation, 58. 
Veracity, 186. 
Visitors, 47. 
Visit Parents, 21. 
Vital Processes, 165. 

Wages, 21-24. 

Wall Maps, 56. 

Ward Method, 83. 

Warming, 60. 

Webb Method, 65. 

Weights and Measures, 118. 

Whispering, 42. 

Windows, 55. 

Woods, Collection of, 175. 

Word Method, 65, 

Words, Etymology of, 219. 

Work, Preliminary, 27. 

Wreaths as Decorations, 217. 

Write Essays, 222. 

Write for County Papers, etc., 

223. 
Writing Spelling, 92. 
Written Contract, 24. 
Written Exercise, 62-90-1 10-128. 



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"This book is the most up-to-date praetical aid I have 
ever seen. The questions on Mathematics, History, and 
the Sciences are full of helpful suggestions. Every pro- 
gressive teacher should possess a copy.' It contains 
questions and answers on the following subjects : 

General History Chemistry 

English Literature Zoology 

Philosophy Astronomy 

Rhetoric Geometry 

Political Economy Physics 

This is one of the most lielpful books for High School 
teachers that has ever been published. It has helped 
many a student to successfully pass his College Entrance 
Examination. Price, $1.50. 

HINDS & NOBLE 

4-5-J3-J4 Cooper Institute - - New York City 

School Books 0/ A II Publishers at One Store 



Specimen page from Likes and Opposites. Price $.50* 
80 ' L/ATES AND OPPOSTTES, , 



Airr. : aid, befriend, cover, defend, 
protect, resist, shelter, shield, sup- 
port, sustain, uphold, withstand. 

attack, n, SYN. : aggression, 
assault, encroachment, in- 
cursion, infringement, intru- 
sion, invasion, onset, on- 
slaught, trespass. 

ANT. : defense, repulsion, resistance, 
retreat, submission, surrender. 

attain. syn. : accomplish, 
achieve, acquire, arrive at, 
compass, earn, gain, get, 
grasp, master, obtain, pro- 
cure, reach, secure, Vi'\w. 

ANT. : abandon, fail, forfeit, give up, 
let go, lose, miss. 

attainment. syn. : accom- 
plishments,acquirements, in- 
formation, progress, wisdom. 

ANT. : genius, inspiration, intuition. 

attempt, v.y see endeavor, v. 

attempt, w., see endeavory n. 

attend. syn. : accompany, 
care, consort, follow, heed, 
imply, involve, listen, mind, 
notice, observe, serve, wait 

on. 
ANT. : abandon, desert, disregard, ex- 
clude, forsake, leave, neutralize, 
trander. 

attendant, see accessory. 

attention, syn. : care, circum- 
spection,consideration,heed, 
industry, notice,observation, 
regard, study, vigilance, 
watchfulness. 

ANT.: absence, abstraction, careless- 
ness, disregard, distraction, inad- 
vertence, indifference, remission. 

attestation, see testimony, 

attire, see dress. 

attitude, syn. : pose, position, 

posture, 
attract* syn. : allure, charm, 



dispose, draw, entice, fasci- 
nate, incline, induce, influ- 
ence, invite, prompt, tempt. 

ANT.: alienate, deter, disincline, es- 
trange, indispose, repel. 

attraction, see love. 

attractive, syn. : alluring, 
agreeable, amiable, beauti- 
ful, captivating, charming, 
engaging, enticing, fasci- 
nating, interesting, inviting, 
pleasant, tempting, winning. 

ANT. : deformed, deterring, disagree- 
able, forbidding, loathsome, re- 
pugnant, repulsive, ugly, unattract- 
ive, uninteresting. 

attribute, v. syn.: ascribe, 

assign, associate, charge, 

connect, impute, refer. 

ANT. : deny, disconnect, dissociatfl^ 
separate, sever, sunder. 

attribute, n. syn. : property, 

quality. 

ANT. : being, essence, nature, sub- 
stance. 

audacity, syn.: boldness, ef- 
frontery, hardihood, rash- 
ness, r»ecklessness, temerity. 

ANT.: calculation, caution, diffidence, 
foresight, forethought, inadventur- 
ousness, self-preservation, timidity. 

augment, syn.: add, amplify, 

broaden, dilate, enlarge, ex- 

pand,extend,increase,stretch 

out, swell. 

ANT.: contract, curtail, diminish, 
lessen, narrow, reduce, restrict. 

augur. SYN. : betoken, bode, 

divine, forebode, foretell, 

portend, predict, presage 

prognosticate, prophesy. 

ANT. : assure, calculate, demonstrate, 
determine, establish, insure, make 
sure, prove, settle, warrant. 

august. SYN.; awful, dignified. 



Sample copy will be sent for inspection if desired* 



A New Speller 

5,000 COMMON WORDS 
ONE SHOULD KNOW HOW TO SPELL 

PricCy 2^ Cents 

Contents 

Words Met in General Reading and Used in Ordinary 
Conversation 

Words of Similar Pronunciation, but of Different Spell- 
ing and Meaning 

Words often Confounded cither in Spelling, Pronuncia- 
tion or Meaning 
Words Spelled the Same, but Differently Accented 
Terminations often Confounded 
Rules for Correct Spelling 
Rules for Capitalization 
Rules for Punctuation 
Words used in Business 
General Abbreviations 
Proper Names 
Table of Diacritical Marks, etc. 

In cases o^ introduction we will deliver this book 
at 20"^ discount =20 cents net per copy — and will take 
in exchange Spellers in use and make reasonable allow- 
ance for them. Ask us questions. 

HINDS k NOBLE, Publishers 
4-5-1 3-14 Cooper Institute New York City 

Sample copy will be sent for inspection if desired. 



Ce$$on$ on manners 

Adapted to 

Grammar Schools^ High Schools 

and Academies 



Author of " How to Teach Manners " and " Ethics for 
Home and School." 



By Julia M. Dewey 

low TO Teach Manners " an( 
Home and School." 

Cloth, i6o pages. Price, y^ cents. 

List of Contents 

Lesson I — Manners in General, 

Lesson II — Manners at Home. 

Lesson III — Manners at School. 

Lesson IV — Manners on the Street. 

Lesson V — Manners at the Table, 

Lesson VI — Manners in Society. 

Lesson VII — Manners at Church. 

Lesson VIII- -Manners Toward the Aged. 

Lesson IX — Manners at Places of Amusement. 

Lesson X — Manners in Traveling. 

Lesson XI — Manners in Places of Business. 

Lesson XII — Manners in Making and Receiving 

Gifts. 
Lesson XIII — Manners in Borrowing. 
Lesson XIV — Manners in Correspondence. 



Price yor introduction, bo cents. Will take other luorks on 
Manners in excha^tge, and make a generous ailowunce yor 
them. 

Hinds & Noble, Publishers 
4^-6-J2-J3-J4 Coopef Institute New York City 



Ce$$on$ on IDorals 

Adapted to 

Grammar Schools, High Schools 

and Academies 

By Julia M, Dewey 

Author of " How to Teach Manners " and " Ethics for 
Home and School." 



Cloth, J04 pages. 



Price, ys <^^^^^- 



List of Contents 



Lesson I — The Study of 
Morals. 

Lesson II — Duties to 
the Body. 

Lesson III — Cleanli- 
ness. 

Lesson IV — Dress and 
Surroundings. 

Lesson V — E x e r c i s e, 
Recreation, etc. 

Lesson VI — Industry. 

Lesson VII — Economy. 

Lesson VIII — Honesty. 

Lesson IX — Truthful- 
ness. 

Lesson X — Time. 

Lesson XI — Order. 

Lesson XII — Courage. 

Lesson XIII — Love. 



Lesson XIV — Benevo- 
lence. 

Lesson XV — F o r g i v e- 
n e s s. 

Lesson XVI — Kindness. 

Lesson XVII — Kind- 
ness to Animals. 

Lesson XVIII— Friends 

Lesson XIX — The 
Home. 

Lesson XX — The School 

Lesson XXI— The Com- 
munity. 

Lesson XXII —The 
State. 

Lesson XXIII —Self 
Culture. 

Lesson XXIV— Nature. 

Lesson XXV— Art 

Lesson XXVI— Reading 



P7'ice for i 7itroduction, bo ctmts. Will take other works on 
Morals in exchange, ajtd make a generous allowance for them. 

Hinds & Noble, Publishers 
4-5-6-J2-J3-J4 Cooper Institute New York City 



Who's Who in Mythology? 



Embarrassing, isn't it, when we run across iht 
name of some god or goddess, in the daily paper, or 
in a poem, ttof to know? Or perhaps one just fails to 
enjoy perfectly a beautiful painting or engraving or 
piece of statuary, because ignorant of the wj//z implied. 

And how one's memory is piqjied when one can't 
recall the story, though once familiar ! How the 
matter "sticks in the mind," pestering us until it all 
comes back to us ; and then we're annoyed to think 
we couldn't recall the connection on the instant, and 
we wish there were some way to be saved all the 
pother. 

Well, there is a way ! 

Just have at hand a convenient little book that 
gives the name of every god and goddess, or hero 
whose name is ever likely to be broached. Not a 
tome, with encyclopaedic fullness of description ! No ! 
But just an alphabetical list, as it were, for ready 
reference, enabling one to find and locate the person- 
age instanter; and quite enough description to enable 
one to connect with the story — just enough to rescue 
one from seeming so distressingly ignorant, as if one 
had never even heard of Pallas, or Aphrodite, or 
Thalia, or Ariadne. Can you tell as many, say, as 
four different but quite familiar names of Minerva? 
Just such a book is published by the undersigned. 
The title of it is 

1000 MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS 
BRIEFLY DESCRIBED 

It is neatly bound in cloth ; is smallish, and of 
convenient shape. And 'tis not so very high-priced — 
only 

SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS POSTPAID 



HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers of 

Commencement Parts. $1.50 

Pros and Cons. Complete Debates. Both Sides. $1.50 

Pieces for Prize Speaking- Contests. $1.25 

4-5-6-i2-lZ-l4 Cooper Institute New York City 

Schoolbooks 0/ all j>ublishers at one store 




WHAT 

SHALL 

I 

DO 



PRICE l.OO 



FIFTY PROFITABLE OCCUPATiONS 



Character Building 

By C. S. Coler, M. S» 

Cloth, Price, $i.oo 

What we want to appear in character, we 
must put into our schools. If, as teachers and 
parents, we permit selfishness, dishonesty, and 
sham in children, we need not be surprised if we 
see these things in society and in the world, — 
From the Author s Preface. 

Contents 
I, Aims in Character Building 
IL Psychology of Character Building 

III. Ethics of Character Building 

IV. Methods in Character Building 
V. Growth in Character 

VI, Habit, In Relation to Character Building 

VII. Study, In Relation to Character Building 

VIII. Education, In Relation to Character Building 

IX. The Parent, In Relation to Character Building 

X. Character and American Citizenship 

XI. Inspiring Thoughts and Helps 

The following subjects have been carefully 
considered by the author : Discipline, Acquisi- 
tion, Assimilation, Appreciation, Aspiration, Ex- 
pression, Consciousness, Will Power, Conscience, 
Duty, Methods of Teaching, Habit, and Moral 
Instruction. 

Several teachers have ordered copies for their 
pupils — others have used it as a text-book in the 
class-room. One teacher ordered twenty-four 
copies to present to her graduating class. 

Dr. W. H. Scott, Professor of Ethics and Psychology in 
Ohio State University, Cohimbtis, 0., in commenting tipon 
the merits of the book, writes: " Your book on ' Character 
Building^ is inspiring. I do not see how an ijitelligent young 
person can read it without being lifted into the realm of 
higher ideas and noble purposes. Every teacher will find it 
full of help:' 

HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 

4-5-6-J2-J3-H Cooper Institute New York City 

School Books of All Publishers at One Store 




BOTH SIDES OF 
LIVE QUESTIONS 
FULLY DISCUSSED 



Cloth, ^80 pages. 



Price, $1.30. 



HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 
4-5-J3-J4 Cooper Institute - - New York City 



Contents of ^'Pros and Cons/* 



SECTION 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 



How to Organize a Society, 
Rules Governing Debates, 
Introductory Observations, 
Political Economy, 



PAGR 

I 

12 

15 

24 



Questions Fully Discussed in the Affirmative and the Negative* 
V. Resolved, That the Single Gold Standard Is for 
the Best Interests of the Country, 

Should Cuba be Annexed to the United States? 

Resolved, That the Fear of Punishment Has a 
Greater Influence on Human Conduct than 
Hope of Reward, ..... 

Resolved, That the United States should Adopt 
Penny Postage, ..... 

Resolved, That High License Is the Best Means 
ot Checking Intemperance, 

Should the Government of the United States 
Own and Control the Railroads ? 

Should Hawaii have been Annexed to the U. S. ? 

Resolved, That Woman Suffrage should Be 
Adopted by an Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, .... 

Resolved, That the World Owes more to Navi- 
gation than to Railroads, - . . . 

Resolved, That the United States should Build 
and Control the Nicaragua Canal, 

Resolved, That Tariff for Revenue Only Is of 
Greater Benefit to the People of the United 
States Than a Protective Tariff, 

Resolved, That the Expensive Social Entertain- 
ments of the Wealthy Are of More Benefit 
than Injury to the Country, 

Resolved, That the Hypocrite Is a More Des- 
picable Character than the Liar, 

Resolved, That the Government of the United 
States should Own and Control the Tele- 
phone and Telegraph Systems, . 

Resolved, That the Average Young Man of 
To-day Has Greater Opportunities to make 
Life a Success Financially than His Fore- 
fathers, ....... 

Is Immigration Detrimental to the United States? 
Are Large Dept. Stores an Injury to the Country? 



VI. 
VII. 



VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 
XII. 



XIII. 



XIV. 

XV. 



XVI. 



XVII. 
XVIII. 



XIX 



XX. 

XXL 



28 
61 



77 
S6 

94 

106 
122 



127 

135 
148 



160 



172 
179 



185 



K99 
206 
21.9 



Contents of '*Pros and Cons/* 



SSCTION PAGB 

XXII. Should Greenbacks Be Retired and the Gov- 
ernment Go Out of Its Present System 
of Banking? ..... 232 

XXIII. Resolved, That Our Present System of Tax- 

ation is the Best that Can Be Devised, 250 

XXIV. Should the President and Senate of the U . S. be 

Elected by Direct Vote of the People? 258 
XXV. Resolved, That It Is Not Good Policy for 
the Government of the United States to 
Establish a System of Postal Savings, 286 

Questions Outlined* 
XXVI. Resolved, That It is for the Best Interests 
of All the People for the Government to 
Own and Control the Coal Mines, . 318 
XXVII. Resolved, That Trusts and Monopolies Are 
a Positive Injury to tiie People Finan- 
cially, ...... 327 

XXVIII. Resolved, That Cities should Own and Con- 
trol All the Public Franchises Now 
Conferred upon Corporations, . . 337 

XXIX. Resolved, That Education as It Is Now 
Thrust upon our Youth Is Dangerous to 
Health and Good Government, . 35 1 

XXX. Resolved, That National Banks should Be 

Abolished, 358 

XXXI. Resolved, That Bi-metallism and Not Pro- 
tection is the Secret of Future Pros- 
perity, 366 

Subjects for Debate. 
XXXII. Two Hundred and Fifty Selected Topics for 

Discussion, ..... 376 



Addresses for Salutatory, Valedictory, 


and other occasions* 


XXXIII. 


Oration — Decoration Day, 


. 


401 


XXXIV. 


Essay — February 22, 


... 


407 


XXXV. 


Salutatory — Life, 


. • • 


420 


XXXVI. 


Oration — Fourth of July, . 


... 


426 


XXXVII. 


Valedictory, 


. • . 


434 


XXXVIII. 


Address — Christmas Eve, . 


. 


440 


XXXIX. 


A Temperance Address — The Nickel Behind 






the Bar, . 


• ( • 


444 


XL. 


Essay — Coa.jt Pefenses, 


• • • 


450 



E Cen Weeks' Course In elocution 



By J V. Coombs, formerly Professor of English Literature and 
Elocution in Eureka College, Eureka, 111. Assisted by Virgil A. 
PiNKLEv, Principal of the Department of Elocution in School of Music, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. Revised and Enlarged by C. H. Harne, Professor 
of Elocution and Reading in Salina Normal University, Salina, Kan- 
sas. Cloth, 415 Pages. Price^ $i.2S- 

Many good books on the Theory of Elocution have 
been published — choice selections are plentiful, but very 
few authors have combined, with the Essentials of Elocu- 
tion, a good variety of proper exercises for practice. In 
Part I, the author has briefly outlined the best way to teach 
a beginner to read. Part II contains a full discussion of 
Dictionary Work, the value of which cannot be over- 
estimated. Part III contains helpful suggestions to 
Teachers of Elocution. Part IV (the largest and most 
important part) contains a thorough discussion of the 
Elements of Elocution, each principle being carefully 
considered. Part V comprises a splendid collection of 
Humorous, Dramatic and Oratorical selections for prac- 
tice — the whole being an ideal work for teachers to use 
with classes which have only a brief period of time to 
devote to the subject. 

The chapters devoted to Elocution have been so 
divided that they can be easily completed by a class in 
ten weeks' time as follows : 

1st Week, Outline of Elocution 

2d Week. Respiration and Breathing 

3rd "Week. Physical Culture (Calisthenics) 

4th Week. Articulation 

5th Week. Orthoepy (Pronunciation) 

6th Week. Vocal Culture 

7th Week. Qualities of the Voice 

8th Week. The Art of Vocal Expression 

9th Week. Gesture 

JOth Week. Gesture 

A great variety of selections, Humorous, Dramatic 
and Oratorical, illustrating the various principles studied, 
immediately follow the Lessons. These are to be used to 
test the Avork that is done by the class from week to week. 

Sample copies 'will be furnished to Teachers 0/ Elocution and 
classes supplied at $1.00. 

HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 
4-5-6-12-S3-J4 Cooper Institute - - New York City 

School Books 0/ All Publishers at One Store 



PIECES FOR : : : ; 

PRIZE-SPEAKING 
CONTESTS : I : : : 



A collection of over one hun- 
dred pieces which have taken 
prizes in prize-speaking contests. 
Cloth, 448 pages. Price, $1.25. 



PUBLISHED BY 

HINDS & NOBLE 

4-5-6-I2-I3-I4 Cooper Institute^ New York City 



Fenno's Science and Art of Elocution 



1 



l)OW to Read and Speak 



Theory and Practice Combined 

The Science and Art of Elocution. Embracing 
a comprehensive and systematic series of exer- 
cises for gesture, calisthenics and the cultivation 
of the voice, together with a collection of nearly 
150 Literary Gems for Reading and Speaking. 
Arranged in four parts and designed to be used as 
a text-book in the class room and for private study, 
as v^^ell as for the use of Readers and Speakers 
generally. By Frank S. Fenno, A.M., F.S.Sc, 
graduate of The National School of Elocution 
and Oratory, compiler of " Fenno's Favorites for 
Reading and Speaking," author of "The Chart 
of Elocution," "Lectures on Elocution," etc., etc. 
Price, $1.25. 

Designed to be Used as a Text-book 
and for Private Study 



HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 
4-5-6-J2-J3-H Cooper Institute New York Qty 

School Books of AU Publishers at One Store 



Commencement Parts^ 

CLOTH — Price $1.50 Postpaid — twelvemo 

Here is a book full of the real iJiingj and con- 
taining nothing but the real thing ! 

The models here — every one a complete address 
— are not composed by the compiler to show what 
he would say if he should happen to be called on for 
a class poem, or an ivy song ; a valedictory, or an 
oration ; a response to a toast, an essay, a recitation, or 
what-not. Not at all! But every one of the ''efforts" 
in this book is real — in the sense that it is what some 
one did do on the particular occasion when he actu- 
ally had to stand up and speak. This entitles them 
to be designated models in a genuine; sense. 

If you are called upon, for any occasion (no 
matter what) during your whole high-school or college 
career, and wish a model to show how some one else 
has risen to a similar opportunity, we think you will 
discover by a glance at the list of contents of Com- 
mencement Parts some illustration of exactly what 
you require. Note also the lists of class mottoes, 
subjects for orations, essays, themes, toasts, etc. 

Besides the above we publish also the following, of interest to 
tliose who have to * ' appear in public on the stage. * ' And we can' t 
think of any *' effort" throughout one's whole career that is not 
provided for — from the little tot's first curt'sy, and along through 
the school and college years, to the debate of important civic 
problems by the adult before his fellow citizens : — 

Pros and Cons. Both sides of live questions. 81.5(X. 

Playable Plays. For school and parlor. $1.50. 

College Men's Three-Minute Declamations. $1.00. 

College Maids' Three-Minute Readings. $1.00. 

Pieces for Prize-Speaking Contests. $1.00. 

Acme Declamation Book. Paper, 30c. Cloth, 50c. 

Handy Pieces to Speak, 108 on separate cards. 50c. 

I-ist of 'VContents " of any or all of above free on request if you mention 

this ad. 

HINDS & NCBLE, Publishers, 
4^5-13-14 Cooper Institute, 3J. Y. Citj. 

SchoolbooTis of all publishers at one store* 



Contents of " Commencement Parts/' 

I. Introduction to Commencement Parts* 

2* The Orator and the Oration* 

(a) The Orator. 

[d) The Oration. 

{c) The Parts of the Oration. 

3* Cormnencement Parts* 

(/) A Latin Salutatory. De Nostro Cum Aliis Civitatibus 

Agendi Modo. 
(^) Orations. 

{a) American Ideals. 

d) Culture and Service. 

c) Education as Related to Civic Prosperity, 

d) Hebraism and Culture. 

e) Marc Antony. 
/) Modern Knighthood. 

[gS The Negro and the South. 

A) The Decisive Battle of the Rebellion, 

^) The University and True Patriotism. 
(j^ The Discipline of Life and Character. 
[^) The Liberalistic Temper. 

/) The Spirit that Should Animate. 

m) Reverence Due from the Old to the Youngs 
fj*^ Appropriate Subjects for the Oration (1-136). 
(^) Valedictories. 

la) "Perduretatque Valeat" (Latin), 
!d) Service. 

c) For a Dental College. 
[d) For a College. 
(<f) For a School. 
(/) For a College. 
{^) Good Day. 

LIBERALISM. 
(5*) Mixed Valedictory and Oration : Catholicity. 

Class Day Exercises. 

(/) Introduction. 
(^) Class Poems. 

(a) O Years You Have Vanished, 

(d) The Breath of the Spirit. 

(c) Home. 

(d) A Vision. 

(e) Alma Mater. 
(^) President's Address, 
Q) Salutatory, 



4. Class Day Exercises {continued), 

(5) Dux's Speech. 

(6) Ivy Oration. 

(7) Class Song. 
\8) Ivy Oration. 
(9) Class Will. 

(/o) Ivy Oration. 

(//) Ivy Poem. 

\i2) Ivy Song. 

(/j) Class Oration — The Old and New. 

\i4) Washington's Birthday Oration. 

(75) Presentation Oration. 

(/6) Class Oration — Abraham Lincoln. 

(77) Class Mottoes (1-42). 

5» The Composition and Essay. 
(/) Introductory Suggestions. 

{a) Model Outline of Composition. 
((5) Model Outline of Essay. 
\c) Brief Essay. 

{2) Compositions, 
(a) Autumn. 

{b) What Makes the Sky Blue? 
\c) The Beauties of Nature. 
{d) Winter Leaves. 

(j) Essays. 

{a) Beatrice. (Charac<^er Study.) 
\F) Independent Character. (Descriptive.) 
U) Ruskin's *' Ethics of the Dust." (Critical.) 
\d) Edward Rowl and Sill. (Literary.) 
\e) Intellectual Improvement, an Aid to the Im- 
agination. (Philosophical Disputation.) 
(y) The Survival of the Fittest in Literature. 

(Literary Discussion.) 
{g) **Una." (Analytical.) 

\h) Thomas Chatterton. (Prize College Essay.) 
(?) Kipling's Religion. (Literary.) 
(y ) The Reaction Against the Classic?. (Colloquy. ) 
\k) Memory's Message. (Dedicatory.) 
(/) Manual Training and Intellectual Develop- 
ment. (Normal School Prize Essay.) 
ijji) True Nobility. (A College Prize Essay.) 

{^4) Subjects for Composition. 
(«) Narrative (1-35). 
{b) Descriptive (1-55). 

{j) Themes for Essays (1-S3). 



f 



€• After-DSnner Spea^t^* 

(i) Introductory Suggestiors. 

(^) An Address of Welcome at an Alumni Dinner (In 

Honor ^ji the College President). 
^3) Response to a Toast, *' Yale and Princeton." 
(^) Response to a Toast, " The Puritan and the Dutcn- 

man." 

(5) Response to a Toast, " The Plain People." 

(6) Response to a Toast, ** Woman." 

(7) Response to a Toast, ** A Business Man's Political 

Obligations." 
((?) Response to a Toast, ** The Sovereignty of the United 

States." 
(9) Response to a Toast, ** Recollection the Strongest In- 
fluence." 
fio) Response to a Toast, *' The Future of the Nation, 
f //) An After-Dinner Story. 
{i^) A List of Toasts (1-40). 

7. Flag Day. 

(/) Introduction. 

(^) Recitation for a Boy or Girl, 

(j) Recitation — Our Country. 

I/) Recitation — The Stars and StripeSi 

(5) Address — Old Glory. 

(6) Address — The Voice of the Flag, 

8. "Words of the National Airs. 

(/) Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, 

(^) Hail Columbia. 

(j) America. 

(^) I'he Star-Spangled Banner. 

(j) Our Flag is There. 



9. Speeches for National Holidays. 

(/) Independence Day Address. 

(2) Lift up Your Hearts, (Fourth of July.) 

(j>) Lincoln the Immortal. (Lincoln's Birthday.) 

(^) Washington's Birthday Address. 

(5) Washington's Birthday. 

(6) Tree Planting. (A Poem for Arbor Day.) 

(7) Decoration Day Address. 

(S) Memorial Day Ode — Our Honored Dead. 



JO. Occasional Addresses, 
(t") Religious. 

(a) Growth. An Address tefore a Christian 

Endeavor Convention. 
(3) To be Kings among Men. A Chapel Ad- 
dress by a College President. 
(<:) The Culture of the Imagination. Address be- 
fore a Young Men' s Christian Association. 
(^) Political. 

(aj The Cross of War. Delivered in the Con- 
gress of the United States. 
(^) Heroes of the ' ' Maine Disaster. ' ' Delivered 
to the National House of Representatives. 
(^) Social. 

(a) The Obligations of Wealth. A Washington's 

Birthday Address. 

(b) An Address to Northern and Southern Vet- 

erans at Chickamauga. 
((5) An Address before the Order of Elks. 
{c) A Poem for a Silver Wedding. 
(^d) An Address at the Dedication of a Memorial 

Tablet. 
((f) Presentation of a Flag to a Regiment Depart- 
ing for War. 
(y") Presentation Address to a Foreman by a 

W^orkman. 
(^) Educational. 

(a) The Higher Education. An Address before 

a Body of Educators. 
(3) Dedication of a School Building. An Address 

of Welcome. 
(^c) Wealth and Progress. An Address at the 

Dedication of a Public Building. 
(d) An Address on Presenting the Keys of a New 

School Building. 
(<f) An Address to a School Graduating Class by 

a Teacher. 
(/) Remarks to a Graduating Class of Young 

Ladies by a Visitor. 
(^) An Address to a Graduating Class of Nurses. 
(/4) Address to a School Graduating Class by a 

Clergyman. 
(/) Dedication of a Public Library. 
(j) Address to a Graduating Class by a Financier. 
(jk) Address before an Educational Convention. 

Foreign Influence upon American Urii. 

versity Life, 



>0. Occasional Addresses {continued). 

(/) Success in Life. An Address before a Busi- 
ness College. 

(w) Address before a College Graduating Class. 

(«) Inaugural Address of a President of a Uni- 
versity. 

(£>) An Address on Receiving the Degree of 
Doctor of Laws from a University. 

(/) The I'residing Officer's Address at a College 
Debate. 

(^) The Influence of the Great Teacher. An 
Address befo'-e College Alumni. 

(r) Response of a College Professor to a Compli- 
mentary Resolution, 
(f) Festival Days. 

{a) A Thanksgiving Speech. 

( (5 ) A Thanksgiving Day Address. 

( <r ) An Exercise Around the Christmas Tree, 

{d) A Mock Menu for a March Banquet. 

(<?) A Banquet Menu. 

{f) A Thanksgiving Song. 
(6) Miscellaneous Abstracts. 

( « ) At the Dedication of a Hall of Science and 
Art. 

(3) Response to a Toast, " Noblesse Oblige.**— 
( Phi Beta Kappa Banquet. ) 

(f ) Grand Army Speech. 



NEW DIALOGUES AND PLAYS 

PRIMARY— INTERMEDIATE— ADVANCED 

Adapted from the popular works of well-known authors by 

BINNEY GUNNISON 

Instructor in the School of Expression, Boston; 
formerly Instyuctor in Elocution in Worcester Acad- 
emy and in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. 

Cloth, 650 Pages - - - Price, $J.50 

Too many books of dialogues have been published with- 
out any particular reference to actual performance on plat- 
form or stage. There are no suggestions of stage business ; 
the characters neither enter nor leave ; while the dialogue 
progresses, no one apparently moves or feels emotion. Noth- 
ing is said at the beginning of the dialogue to show the situa- 
tion of the characters; no hints are given as to the part 
about to be played. In plays, as ordinarily printed, there is 
very little to show either character or situation — all must be 
found out by a thorough study of the play. This may be 
well for the careful student, but the average amateur has no 
time, and often only little inclination, to peruse a whole play 
or a whole novel in order to play a little part in an enter- 
tainment. 

Perhaps the strongest feature of our book is the carefull> 
prepared introduction to each dialogue. Not only are the 
characters all named in order of importance, but the charac- 
teristics, the costumes, the relation of one to another, age, 
size, etc., are all mentioned. Most important of all is what 
is called the "Situation." Here the facts necessary to a 
clear comprehension of the dialogue following are given 
very concisely, very briefly, but, it is hoped, adequately for 
the purpose in hand. The story previous to the opening of 
the dialogue is related ; the condition of the characters at 
the beginning of the scene is stated ; the setting of the plat- 
form is carefully described. 

There has been no book of dialogues published containing 
so much of absolutely new material adapted from the best 
literature and gathered from the most recent sources— this 
feature will be especially appreciated. 

May we send you a copy for inspection subject to your 
approval ? 

HINDS & NOBLE 

Publishers of 3-Minute Declamations for College Men 

3-Minute Readings for College Girls, Handy Pieces to Speak 

Acme Declaination Book, Pros & Cons (Complete Debates) 

Commencement Parts (Orations, Essays, Addresses), Pieces for Prize 

Speaking Contests (m press). 

4-543-J4 Cooper Institute New York City 



LIST OF CONTENTS 



PRIMARY DIALOGUES 

Humorous 

Training the Ruggleses Kate Douglas Wiggin 

Patsy's Visit -Kate Douglas Wiggin 

Aunt Ellen's Hatchet 

The New Baby Frances Hodgson Burnett 

The Unburied Woman 

Playing Hookey Sophie May 

Hearsay 

Tired of Church 

The Inkstand Sophie May 

The Sword Berquin 

Serious 

Fauntleroy and the Earl .... Frances Hodgson Burnett 

The Reconciliation Louise M. Alcott 

Keeping House Sophie May 

Adopt My Baby Kate Douglas Wiggin 

Selling the Image Mrs. C. V. Jamison 

The Sick Boy's Plan 

A Child's Love 

A Manly Boy 

A Tiny Quarrel Sophie May 

The Mouse Mrs. C. V. Ja}?iison 

Nell's Christmas Stocking J. L. Harbour 

Father Time's Granddaughters . . Nathaniel Hawthorne 

INTERMEDIATE DIALOGUES 

Humorous 

The Schoolmaster W. T. Adams 

A Confession of Love 

Not Quite John Poole 

Captain Kempthorn H. W. Longfellow 

The Restless Youth 

Testing the Suitors 

The Emperor and the Deserter 

Mike Gets a Job 

The Stupid Lover 

Our Daughter 

His Own Pills 

Louis XIV. and His Minister A. Conan Doyle 

The Challenge Richard Brinsley Sheridan 



Serious 

The Homeless Old Man Hall Caine 

The Witch of Vesuvius Bulwer Lytton 

His Enemy's Honor 

Cleopatra and the Messenger Shakespeare 

The Bishop's Silver Candlesticks Victor Hugo 

The Peasant Boy's Vindication Dimond 

The Baron and the Jew Walter Scott 

In Love with His Wife 

Christian Forgiveness 

A Wife and a Home . 

Aurelian and Zenobia William Ware 



ADVANCED DIALOGUES 
Humofous 

The French Duel Mark Twain 

Mrs. Hardcastle's Journey Oliver Goldsmith 

A Matter of Duty Anthony Hope 

Pride Against Pride Westland Marston 

Tom and Roxy Mark Twain 

A Disastrous Announcement Charles Dickens 

Miss Judith Macan Charles Lever 

Helen and Modus Sheridan Knowles 

Sam Weller and his Father Charles Dickens 

Extracting a Secret F. Marion Crawford 

Open or Shut Alfred de Mussel 

Taming a Wife John Tobm 

The Prairie Princesses 

Serious 

The Suffering of Nehushta F. Marion Crawford 

"Gentlemen, the King!" Robert Barr 

Ben-Hur and Iras Lew Wallace 

Savonarola and Lorenzo Alfred Austin 

Tito's Armor George Eliot 

Love Conquers Revenge Robert Byr 

Becket Saves Rosamund Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

The Princess and the Countess R. L. Stevenson 

Queen Catherine Shakespeare 

Deacon Brodie Henley and Stevenson 

Pizarro and Rolla Richard Brinsley Sheridan 

Raimond Released Mrs. Felicia Hemans 

Mrs. Harwood's Secret Mrs. M. O. W. Oliphant 

Innocence Rewarded Oliver Goldsmith 






Books for your Obrary 



No Private School, High School or College Library 
is complete without having on its shelves one or more oi 
the following books for its students to refer to. 

Teachers are ordering many of these books for their 
own personal use. 

Mistakes in Teaching (Preston Papers) $i.oo 

Craig's New Common School Question Book, with Answers 1.50 

Henry's New High School Question Book, with Answers 1.50 

Gordy's New Psychology 1.25 

Mackenzie's Manual of Ethics 1.50 

Lind's Best Methods of Teaching in Country Schools 1.25 

Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching " i.oo 

Character Building (Coler) i.oo 

A Ten Weeks' Course in Elocution (Coombs) 1.25 

Commencement Parts (Valedictories, Orations, Essays, etc.) 1.50 

Pros and Cons (Both Sides of Important Questions Discussed). . , 1.50 

Three Minute Declamations for College Men i.oo 

Three Minute Readings for College Girls i.oo 

Pieces for Prize Speaking Contests (Craig & Gunnison) i.oo 

New Dialogues and Plays (Gunnison) 1.50 

Classic French-English, English-French Dictionary 2.00 

German-English, English- German Dictionary 2.00 

Italian-English, English-Italian Dictionary 2.00 

" Latin-English, English-Latin Dictionary 2.00 

" Greek-English, English-Greek Dictionary 2.00 

Handy Spanish-English, English-Spanish Dictionary i.oo 

" Italian-English, English-Italian Dictionary i.oo 

Shortest Road to Csesar (Jeffers) 75 

How to Prepare for a Civil Service Examination 2.00 

How to Become Quick at Figures i.oo 

Likes and Opposites (Synonyms and Antonyms) 50 

Hinds & Noble's New Letter Writer 75 

Quizzism and Its Key (South wick) i.oo 

We will send postpaid, subject to your approval, 
any of the books on this list upon receipt of the price. 
Mention " Books for your Library " when you write us. 

HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 
4-5-6-I2-ia-I4 Cooper Institute New York City 



JW 



,900 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 823 495 3 




